Kokoro no Kagami
by Ranabanana Thingamabob
Summary: When Alex McCarthy is 'randomly' chosen for a student exchange program out of mischievous means, she has to quickly learn to adjust to her new surroundings and new family. Will she get along well with her school or make enemies? EijixOC
1. Free as a bird

Kokoro no Kagami

Rana: Hi. I'm Rana Banana Thingamabob. Don't own POT or any of the Beatles' song titles. By the way, the titles will have something to do with the story...in some way. See ya. R&R _**ENJOY!**_

Chapter 1: Free as a bird

Sobbing, Alex McCarthy threw things into a suit case. She didn't know what these things were, but she didn't much care at the moment.

Just a brain numbingly slow three months before, she had received a high school raffle award. That was a shock enough as it was that she had won at all—and let me tell you she sucks at winning things—but even more because she hadn't even entered.

It was probably because of Jordan, her devious neighbor, who usually pulls things like that, though entering her in things like that almost never proved to be successful, but strangely it had.

"Jordan's just weird like that." she had murmured to herself in disbelief when it had been announced by means of the schools megaphone thing-y that was up on just about every wall.

Alex, of course, did not believe it herself, as I have mentioned before, she had never won _anything_.

And worst of all, Alex had just settled into her high school life with all of her life time friends. It was especially hard to settle, however, because she was practically the only Japanese girl there.

Okay well not the _only _Japanese person there...but there were definitely not a lot!

Soon finished packing her eyes went from blankness to slight panic, and with a sigh and a heavy heart, she headed towards her mother's car, her goodbyes already been said to all of her friends—those who would still talk to her, anyway—her pace slow and stiff.

It was obvious, at least to her mother, that she would miss America, and all of her friends of course, her mother observed from inside of her car, watching her daughter's slow pace, while her younger daughter at twelve, Rita, waited impatiently from the back seat, repeatedly kicking the cursed thing, as though that was why her sister was taking so long.

Rita had already been angry, since she couldn't go to Japan while her big sister, who snores, could? As if!

In what seemed like forever, Alex finally reached the car, placed her bag in the trunk, not without difficulty, heart heavier than ever, she slowly entered the car door, and lifted up her ponytail of long, blond hair, making sure not to sit on it, and sat down next to her sister of the same height, Rita, who resisted the urge to say 'Finally!'

Staring blankly outside of the window, Alex paid no attention to her mother's driving, and didn't even bother to use her trusty, but creepy orange cat I-pod with large headphones.

Not that her sister wasn't happy about that. In fact she was overjoyed.

Usually Alex would tease her about stupid things, but not anymore! After that day, Rita would be...free...

Rita had not thought about this, and felt a little lonely suddenly.

No one, not Alex and definitely not Rita, would have ever believed that she, Rita McCarthy of all people, would _ever_ miss her older sister. _Ever_.

The rest of the way Rita sat in silence and disappointment, contemplating about how this could've happened.

Meanwhile Mrs. Mary McCarthy was contemplating something else.

She had never heard her children so quiet. _Ever_.

Her daughter was leaving. Her baby was leaving the nest! Mrs. McCarthy sobbed silently, swerving around, nearly hitting a car, or a small truck.

She couldn't tell while she wasn't wearing her glasses.

The drive there seemed long, and dangerous when every so often Lucy paid attention to the road, but she had been used to it, especially while it was so rainy out. Maybe the plane wouldn't launch, and Rita wouldn't feel that way anymore!

But to Rita's unthinkable disappointment, the rain had stopped, maybe half an hour into the ride.

With blank and emotionless faces, the McCarthy women slowly got out of the small blue echo, and with slight reluctance, began a brisk pace to the large airport, splashing through the water, straight to the electronic airport door, which opened automatically as they stepped on the black, and slightly soggy mat that lead to the large and cool airport.

Subconsciously, Alex pulled down her straw hat that had been given to her by her best friend and prankster, and continued to look around the airport, mostly at the foreign people, and the oddly colored luggage, while her cold hands were in the pockets of her bright yellow sun dress.

"I'm gonna miss America."


	2. The long and winding road

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana: Hewo! Don't own POT! I haven't been able to recruit any of my other characters to do the disclaimer. Yet. I don't own POT, or the Beatles in any way(except for my posters that I bought and the t-shirts). Yet. Hehehe... Oh, I do own Biko, Alex, Rita, Mrs. McCarthy, the obnoxious girl and her mom, and the plane(plain?).

Chapter 2: The Long and Winding Road

"_**Flight 624 for Japan, now boarding. Flight 624 for Japan now boarding.**_" said that oddly perfect airport voice that annoyed Alex to no end.

As soon as she heard it, Mrs. McCarthy rushed Alex and Rita to their terminal, though Alex was still fumbling with her exceedingly heavy bag.

As soon as Mrs. McCarthy saw the right number, she pushed in Alex, who just barely avoided tripping, and probably being suffocated by her large bag, that could probably fit a body.

Running into the station thing-y, Alex walked to the seat that the ticket had said, '**Seat 6 row 5**.'

Sitting down, she ignored her weird looking seat mate who had tried to make conversation, but had shut up when he saw her put on her I-pod head phones with her creepy cat music player.

Putting it on shuffle, she pulled up a blanket that the woman had given her long ago, and tried to get comfortable.

"Damn, I can't sleep now," she muttered darkly as her favorite movie, 'Batman Forever' came on, while she paused 'Michelle' by the Beatles, her wedding song. Any George or Paul romance song would do.

Though she was watching the movie with a bored expression, she was slightly interested, just a little home sick.

'And I may throw up.' she thought as she made a beeline for the bathroom, accidentally flinging her blanket on the extremely tall and long necked creepy guy that had tried to make a conversation with her.

After practically hurling her guts out, she returned to her seat, and noticed her missing blanket. Spotting it on the now awake long necked guy, Alex was about to comment, but felt that another lung was gonna come up, so she made another beeline to the girl's bathroom, forgetting to lock the door.

Eventually after hurling a few more guts, she fell asleep on the floor.

"But mommy! I gotta go, _now_!" whined a small girl, somewhere in that very plane, to the annoyance of at least five passengers, who did not appreciate waking up at 3am.

"_Fine!_" yelled the frustrated mother, who had to listen to this crap right next to the horses mouth, which the little girl may have well been by the way the stewardess' and flight attendants were looking at her.

Grabbing her arm, she walked at a brisk pace that the little girl had to run to catch up to. Once they reached the door, the woman practically slammed the door open, making a loud bang sound, nearly loud enough to wake the dead.

On the floor, was a girl with blond hair with a bit of puke in it.

In the toilette was more of said puke.

"Mommy!" yelled the little girl obnoxiously, in order to get her mother's attention. Her mother has just been so stupid, and a mean-y lately!

"What?" the mother snapped angrily, who had to deal with that little screaming brat for 6 years.

"What's that?" the black haired girl yelled obnoxiously, and loudly, pointing at the puke and the floor, thinking that her mother hadn't heard her. She thought she had spoken loud enough.

"That's what happened after I met your father, a few months before I learned about _you_." said the tired looking lady, remembering that one _tragic _month in Vegas, while steering her little girl out of the bathroom.

"But mommy! I still gotta pee!" whined the little girl, looking frustratingly at her stupid mother, who only sighed, and thought about what to do when her daughter peed in her chair.

Maybe she would leave it for the people to clean.

"Mommy! PAY ATTENTION!" she hollered, officially waking up our main protagonist.

"Ah crap!" was heard by a girl with very poor hearing, who had woken up automatically. In minutes, the toilet rim, floor and Alex's hair was clean, and the low sink by the toilet was dented with some platinum blond hair stuck on it, owned by someone who was sure that her brain cells had gone.

~K~O~K~O + K~A~G~I~

Tired, and with a hint of the lingering taste of puke, mostly containing her going away party chicken, deviled eggs, and strawberry cake, a certain blond haired girl walked back to her seat with a strange twitch in her eye, and laid down, roughly stealing back her blanket from the odd looking long necked guy, nearly knocking over someone's glasses case off of the armrest.

Not paying attention, Alex laid down, but after much tossing, turning, and knocking the guy's stuff to the floor, she decided that she couldn't sleep.

It was nervousness and the frequent popping of her ears from the sudden change in altitudes, she decided. Despite the fact that she didn't understand what that last sentence meant exactly, she new that it had something to do with her current happenings at that moment.

Alex couldn't help but be a little nervous. She _was_ going to Japan after all, and living with a whole new family, leaving everything she built up for years, behind.

Not knowing what to expect _would_ be scary, and she was barely able to understand and speak Japanese, not to mention that she was without any knowledge of how to read or write in it.

And yet someplace deep in her gut she, without her knowing, was excited about going to Japan. Starting a new life, a clean slate, with new people who didn't know all of her embarrassing secrets, or her Beatles obsession.

Somehow, in her thoughts Alex had drifted off to a peaceful and dreamless sleep, and woke up Kobayashi Biko, or Brontosaurus as he is known in class, with her very soft snoring.

Biko had prided himself upon his hearing, if anything.

He had not appreciated the girl ignoring his conversation starter, but had accepted it.

Biko was used to being ignored, and bullied, especially by girls.

Correct that. He is only bullied _by_ girls. Everyday.

Like his father, Biko wore glasses, had medium colored dark skin, black hair, and an awkward demeanor. If one girl had ignored him, he could accept it.

Imagine his delight when he had seen that girl leave after giving him her blanket! What a kind thing to do! He had fan gushed, before falling asleep, cradling the very blanket that the cutest, and perhaps nicest girl he had ever seen, had given him! In his opinion at least.

He liked her, he thought happily, and maybe the blanket thing means that she liked him!

The brontosaurus had no ideas how wrong he was.

Soon, in maybe three hours it was eight in the morning, and Alex woke up with a tired bear yawn that scared herself.

"Whoa," the dark blue eyed girl said in amazement, and still in a slight daze from just waking up.

Alex stumbled into the bathroom, just seconds after the pilot announced some turbulence, and nearly hit her head on the door frame.

After doing her business, she returned to her seat, and quickly rapping herself in the gray blanket to escape from the cold that had been nipping on her fingers and cheeks.

Very soon a stewardess had come by, and asked, "Miss? What would you like for breakfast." After searching a while for the menu, which was kindly pointed out to by the stewardess, she looked it over, before deciding which picture looked the best, since she was not able to read the language.

Pointing out the picture that looked like pizza, the kind stewardess nodded, and luckily got enough sleep, unlike her friend, a night stewardess who had been up at 3am and was now in a particularly sour mood.

Walking away, the stewardess returned with some heated up pizza.

'Yum!' thought Alex, trying to control her drool.


	3. Michelle

**Kokoro no Kagami Michelle**

Hi! It's Rana here to introduce the introduction of a new character! My Chinese twin sister from Saint Glubia Junior high who in no way looks like me! He~res Sandy Pear Thingamabob!

Sandy: Hi! I'm Rana's new assistant in editing*is nudged in the rib by Rana-Oh! No, I mean her twin Chinese sister! I don't know why her last one quit! Rana don't own POT, but she do own Alex, and Biko(maybe Mrs. Karo, but that's sort of unclear. No, wait she don't.) Oh, Mrs. Karo's English is supposed to be terrible, so if you don't understand something, try to sound it out(to those who read this). Rana still doesn't own the Beatles, and let me tell you there will probably be references and stuff everywhere!

Rana: Nearly forgot! I don't own One Piece by Eichiro Oda-sama either! Oh, and if you can figure out why I used these songs...well I'll try to think of a prize of some sort, and if it's not too much for me to handle, you can choose your own prize! The first competition will be for the first published chapters, and then individual ones for each new chapter.

Chapter 3: Michelle

As soon as they landed, Alex happily grabbed her large bag, still big enough to hold a small body, and carefully walked down the bridge or stairs, making sure not to fall under the weight of the bag.

The entirety of the plane ride had been spent trying to avoid and ignore that freakishly tall, creepy guy who had kept trying to talk to her, creeping her out even more.

By her estimation, that guy was definitely older than her and most likely one of the strangers that her mother had her to avoid.

Departing out of the plane, which luckily the creepy guy seemed to still be on, Alex walked at a brisk pace into the airport, and looked for a sign with her last name, hopefully in English.

After looking around worriedly, and slightly scared that a guy like that brontosaurus neck guy would take her, like that shady looking guy that had been eying her for the past fifteen minutes, a sign erupted from the crowd with her last name, upside down though, but she would do anything to no longer be alone.

She continued her brisk pace, her body stiffening in nervousness.

Soon arriving at the hands holding the sign, she saw a really pretty and thin woman, who was much taller than her. Her hair was a strangely styled black which looked as though it were gelled in spikes at the sides of her head.

"Arex McCarsy?" asked the woman, trying her best at an American accent.

After grunting in agreement, the woman walked off while holding Alex's hand, the latter blushed. She was used to hugging people on her will and making them blush but not the other way around, and the ladies hands were soft, but really cold.

"Me nami iz Mrs. Karo. Ya go to me house." Feeling slightly guilty, since Karo had to try so hard, Alex chose that moment to speak up.

"Uh, yeah. Thank you." said Alex, voice full of gratitude, and a bit nervous too. At that moment, the black haired woman smiled, knowing that someone had finally understood her English.

"Me son, Kenji, will teach ya Hapanese ig ya wan." said Karo kindly through her mangled Japanese, which Alex had somehow barely understood.

Alex then flushed in embarrassment and nodded in response to the very kind lady.

Walking outside of the airport's large, automatic door, Alex's face was immediately whipped by the nippingly cold Japanese air, and so was the rest of her body. Silently cursing her mother for making her wear a yellow sun dress _in the winter_, Alex continued to her and Karo's silent trek to the car, blowing heat onto her small, cold hands.

They walked for a while through a nearly full parking lot with strange foreign looking signs.

Alex slapped her head. 'Duh, Japanese.'

Quite suddenly, Alex's head whipped around at all directions. To herself, Alex was still slightly afraid that that creepy guy from the plane was following her. He had kept singing these weird creepy songs, and kept looking at her, and tried to make conversation in Japanese.

Alex may have been dubbed 'the innocent one' by her friends, but she still knew that those were not good signs.

While she was thinking, Karo had placed Alex's bag in her trunk, and ushered the small looking girl into the old car that sort of looked like a faded red fish that had been in a few minor car wrecks, and whose paint was beginning to chip off.

Still slightly dazed in disbelief of leaving Japan, Alex said nothing. Even when the car started up, left the airport parking lot, or even when Alex got a chance to glimpse really close planes, a beach, or her first glimpse of Tokyo.

Which if anyone back at home would've heard, they wouldn't have been surprised.

Alex McCarthy's eyes were staring out of the old fish's backseat window, looking at just about anything that caught her interest, though very few things did.

All that she had seen had been endless buildings.

Though, the driving Mrs. Karo had been feeling quite different.

For a long time, she had wanted another child, despite the already large number of children that she had already acquired, including her adopted child, and when she had heard of a transfer program at her youngest son's school, she was elated! On the even brighter side, another daughter would even it out.

Three boys, and now three girls! No wait...four girls.

Keeping it a surprise from her children, except for her two oldest who were now above high school, she, along with them, had been preparing a guest room.

Of course, her husband and five other children didn't know, but those are all semantics.

For a second, she wondered how her youngest would feel.

He and she would definitely be happy, she thought to herself, her dark indigo blue eyes shining confidently, her oddly styled short black hair waving in the wind.

At about that moment, she realized that something was wrong. But what?

Then she realized. It was too quiet! Reaching for the radio without averting her eyes from the road, she turned on the CD that had been playing before she had picked up Alex-Chan. It turned out to be a Beatles CD that Kenji, her oldest son had made.

Suddenly, without Karo noticing, Alex's ears perked up.

Helter-Skelter. One of her all time favorite Beatles songs was playing. In Japan.

Someone in Japan had a Beatles CD!

Forgetting her formal sadness and feelings of desolateness, she smiled and moved her body slightly with the music, until the point where she was singing along.

At the sound of her new daughter singing, Karo grinned widely, her new daughter wasn't that good at singing American songs, but she _did_ sound a bit like Kanon Wakeshima though, she thought while unconsciously looking at her new daughter through the rear view mirror.

"SORRY!" she yelled out of the window, after nearly hitting someone, though Alex was didn't seem to notice at all.

"Mom's a much worse driver." she mumbled to herself, with a pang of homesickness, or jet lag. Most likely the latter.

Her best friends in the world, her sister, and her mother had hardly even spoken to her, so she was used to being quiet for at least a few months.

The last thing of what could barely be called a human encounter with any of them was when Jordan, the one who had gotten her into all of this, had sent her a guilty look and shoved his favorite Monkey D. Luffy like hat—that she had wanted since he got it from his father—onto her head, over her eyes, and then ran, she guessed.

For a moment it had felt like it was all her fault, for her stupid luck of somehow getting into that contest in the first place.

Because only _she_, the person who had _never_ won anything in her life, could actually win that, she thought while the edges of her eyes began to sting, and slowly, but in great size, tears streamed down her childish cheeks, and soon into her mouth.

'Gross,' she thought before she allowed the tears to swell up into her eyes.

Quickly, she dabbed her eyes with a tissue filled with that stuff that you put on your chest when you have a cold. Immediately after she sniffled softly and held in the remainder of her tears, while the chest stuff, Vicks, she believed, kicked in and woke her up.

Alex will never, ever let anybody see her tears.

She promised to someone years ago, after all. A promise is a promise.

Where would we be without them, after all? Dead.

Whoa! What a dark thought, she thought, now slightly afraid of her own mind.

"Arex-Chan! We hee~!" shouted Mrs. Karo from the front seat in a sing song voice, ripping Alex out of her thoughts. When Alex looked out of her window of the left side she saw a small green house with a very small gate, that was slightly attractive, but she didn't like it much.

It just didn't feel like home.

Karo could obviously tell this by Alex's face, though to Alex's surprise, she was smiling.

"Not dat way sirry(silly)! Over der!" she pointed in the opposite direction to the right window. Alex looked and her eyes widened. It was a white two story house with a big wooden door in front and a gate. There were various plants around the front of the house, seemingly in random places. It looked much more like what Alex thought a home should have looked like.

Then, with the help of Karo, Alex, despite being disoriented by jet lag, had somehow made it into the house and saw the stairs with wide eyes, and slight drool.

"Sowwy. Ya upstaiws." Karo then ushered Alex up the stairs and into a nice looking room. This room had a bright blue color, that Alex nearly drooled at, and many artistic pictures of normal everyday things like a jug pouring down water, or waterfalls, mostly things having to do with water, she guessed. There was a lilac colored bed with childish things sewn on it like teddy bears and stars. Alex quite liked that.

"I sink ya would like mi son Eiji. He's da younjest, except fo Tsubaki and Kinna de odest, Kenji too, Shikoku, an Yuki," she continued on talking fondly of her children.

On the right side of the bed facing the door was a writing desk with a lamp, and pencils, and other writing supplies.

On the left side of the bed was a small mahogany bedside table with an electronic clock on it with an old looking hourglass with beautiful swirling lines of gold about it, and a glowing, red violin(1). What those things had to do with each other, Alex had no idea.

The bedside table held drawers, and was right next to a window with also lilac colored curtains surrounding it, and touching the floor. They were currently tied up to their own sides and opened, revealing the now setting sun. Karo then led Alex to her bed, where she passed out, without another moment.

"Well I guess I'll leave then." said Karo quietly in her own native language as she silently crept out of the room, though it wouldn't have mattered if she had thrown a bowling ball onto the floor.

Later, Alex was groggily waking up with a terrible taste in her mouth.

"Yuck. Morning breath." she muttered to herself, as she had discovered the source of her waking up.

The strange clock with the violin and the hourglass. It had been playing a very upbeat song that she had not known the name to.(2)

Curious, still disoriented and tired, she pressed the button on the top of the silver and shiny hourglass, turning it off. Her eyes still blurry, and the thick curtains closed, she couldn't tell what time it was.

Alex then staggered into the hallway, the morning breath practically haunting her, and made her way to another room, though she didn't know where.

Slowly, she crawled down the stairs, hand on the rail, and finally reached the bottom with a sigh. It had taken forever for her to get to the bottom.

Staggering once more through what looked like a kitchen, she walked to a table where a figure was. From a few feet away, it seemed to be Karo, but a small shine of moonlight through the kitchen window implied that it may have had red hair, and not black?

She pondered on this while toying with her the bottom of her lemon yellow sun dress, which was very uncomfortable to sleep in while the top was clinging to her chest with sweat. Stepping closer to the figure, she realized that it really was red hair. And not the regular orangish-yellow color. It was a bright crimson, which shone nicely in the moon.

The person was a sleeping boy about her age, who had appeared to be doing some kind of paperwork, which was what his arms were resting on as the held up his head. Seeing the boy shiver violently, Alex moved to a closet to find no blanket at all.

"Dang it," she muttered, imagining the shivering boy. Moving up the stairs, forgetting her tiredness for a moment, she slowly walked up the stairs, hand hovering over the stair rail, and returning to her room, and swiftly coming back to the room with the sleeping boy, holding a large midnight blue blankets with azure cartoon steam trains on it that had been in one of her drawers.

Kinna, the oldest sibling and sister, had packed a number of blankets into her top drawer just in case Alex got cold—Karo had told her.

"This boy must be that youngest kid that Karo was talking about," Alex said dreamily while staring at the boy's cute face, while putting her head over her folded arms on the table, mimicking what the boy was doing, only inches away. She didn't care if her bare arms were freezing cold.

Suddenly she realized that it was really dark in the room, which was odd since Alex was afraid of the dark. Not knowing why, she just felt that she was safe with someone else was in the room. In the dark, Alex could hear a soft dripping of the kitchen faucet water over the boy's soft breathing, echoing in her ears.

"Eiji." Alex remembered. Suddenly the boys mouth opened slightly, and Alex swore she could smell minty toothpaste. "Curious." said Alex, knowing for a fact that she at least hates brushing her teeth, and forgets a lot of the time and that it was strange that she could smell it. She never really paid attention to what other people's...breath...smiled like.

After staring at him for another second, and wondering what color his eyes were out of pure curiosity, she stood up and began to walk away, one side feeling heavier than the other.

"_Matte...Yuede-san_!" she heard a faint voice say in Japanese. Looking back, she saw the boy with his eyes half open, showing his dark eyes.

'They look like...Karo-san's-I mean mom's eyes.' she thought with a smile, before walking away, her body tilted slightly in exhaustion and the fact that her head and hair felt really heavy all of the sudden. Maybe she would think about getting it cut.

"_Yuede-san!_" he said louder, and thinking that she was this '_yuede_' she turned around to see him staggering to stand up.

"Go back to sleep, Eiji," she said calmly in English, though he didn't have any idea what it meant, and she realized that a moment later. Tilting his head curiously, the half awake red haired boy continued to stare at her.

Why did she say his name? Why was she here? Why hadn't he peed in his pants yet?

Rolling her eyes with a tiny chuckle, she sent him a tiny grin, a wave, and blew him a playful kiss good night, before limply running back upstairs, wondering why in the Beatles' name she did that.

"I guess _I'm_ just weird like that." the odd child shrugged to herself before tiredly staggering her way to her bed where she got an uneasy rest.

1- This is a reference to Kanon Wakeshima. 2- The song was Kuroi Torikago by Kanon Wakashima. 3-The boy(and I'm guessing you know who he is) said "Wait! Miss Ghost!"


	4. A Day in the Life

**Kokoro no Kagami Aditl**

Rana-HI! I'm so glad to have finally gotten that Chapter out of my system! Also, yay! I got to add in more characters that will come in later! That was a spoiler! YAYZ!

Sandy- HI-HI! Rana don't own nothing but me bad grammar and her OCS. OR she don't own PoT.

Chapter 4: A day in the life

The next day, Kikumaru Eiji's classmates could all see that he was obviously freaked out by something, as he had been about two weeks before. Especially his little sister Tsubaki, who always seemed to notice when he was off.

"What's wrong Eiji?" asked Tsubaki loudly as her and her older brother made their way to buy their lunch at the Seigaku cafeteria, briskly walking past the lockers and others student smaking their way in the same direction.

"I-I...How could you tell?" shouted Eiji in surprise, as though he didn't know that it was that obvious.

Tsubaki rolled her hazel green eyes. Her brother was so easy to see through, she thought as she flicked her nearly blond hair randomly.

"Gosh! I mean you are just _so_ easy to read! I bet you anything it's about a girl!" she said confidently with her voice raising an octave higher.

Eiji's eyes widened. So it _was_ a girl!

"And let me guess, she left you. She probably said something corny too, that _you_ didn't understand. _Being someone who doesn't understand the fine language_." By fine language she meant romance, and of course had been speaking blindly.

Though strangely it had somehow applied to Eiji's situation, she knew this when his eyes widened even more.

"Oh! What should I do then? She just _wouldn't _talk to me!" he whined and Tsubaki nodded, happy that she had been right, as she _always _had been, she thought. Thought of all of the things that would apply to this situation, and tried to remember all of the things that she had read in that one romance novel. Not to mention, the _only _romance novel she had ever read. If she remembered correctly, the first thing to do when that happened was...

"You gotta establish communication or what you ma call it. Make sure that you get her to sit down and show no fear!" she said confidently, flexing her small arm.

Nodding, Eiji wrote this down. Once his sister was on a roll, she didn't stop!

"Then you gotta establish your problem, or whatever. Talk it out, see how you can fix it." said Tsubaki, thinking all the while, 'Gosh, I'm good!'

Nodding, Eiji finished jotting down his notes, and the passing teachers wondered why he couldn't be so observant in class.

"Thanks Baki-Chan!" called Eiji while he ran to the lunch room, completely forgetting his little second year sister.

"Eiji..." she trailed off, putting her finger on her lip, and walking with a dark aura to the lunch room. That's what she gets for being nice and giving advice!

Rushing to the lunchroom, Kikumaru couldn't wait to tell his buddies his newfound revelation! Finding his table with the regulars, he slammed his palms onto the bright baby puke green tables, no doubt with gum underneath, and began the tiny speech in his mind, also making his beginning as smart-icles as possible.

"I gotta ghost in my house, Nya!" he yelled, surprising the regulars, and the two Echizens?

"OMIGOSHTHEREARETWOOCHIBIS!" the hyperactive knucklehead acrobat suddenly yelled, and the second Echizen jumped(1).

All looking, a few of the regulars seemed to notice the clone sitting there.

"Oh! I didn't notice him there!" exclaimed the knucklehead second year power player.

Tezuka just massaged the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger and thumb. He may have been getting another migraine.

"Fssshuuu..."

"Fuji-senpai invited me," the clone shrugged as if that explained everything. Now everybody stared at Fuji, wondering if he had had the data master Inui make a clone of Echizen for him. Though it wouldn't have surprised them if that were the case.

"Anyway! You'll never believe what happened to me at home two weeks ago!" the hyperactive redhead squeaked excitedly, indigo blue eyes shining, his foot tapping impatiently. All eyes—including those of other people on other tables—were now on the dancing redhead.

"Anyway!" he shouted, and those who were not meant to look pretended to be interested in something else. He looked around suddenly, as though a monster would be hiding in Fuji's lunch. However, no one doubted that something was in Inui's shivering, grumbling lunch.

"It was really late, and I was falling asleep on my kitchen table because Kaidoh-san gave us a ton of homework."-Everyone knew that Kaidoh's grandmother, a math teacher, was practically evil. "Something weird woke me up. I looked up, and it was this super cute girl!" he said smiling happily. "But...their was something weird..." he started dramatically, as everyone leaned in to listen once again. "It was in my house, and I've never seen her before...in my life..."

The clone bit it's nails, Tezuka rubbed the bridge of his nose, and Fuji...was being Fuji.

"There is a 85.5% chance that this was a dream." said Inui, very robotic like and everyone nodded, to the frustration of Kikumaru. Said acrobat was fuming silently, frustrated by the fact that his friends didn't believe him.

"Nya! Inui, it really happened!" he whined, his childish face flushed. The clone stared at both of the two upperclassmen, wondering if they were about to start a fight. "I saw her with my own two eyes! NYAAAA~!"

~K~O~K~O + K~A~G~I~

Meanwhile Alex was at the kitchen table, preparing to take some kind of homework or quiz that she had to take for her new school.

The quiz seemed to be a simple question and answer quiz, where you had to get your own paper to write down the answers. There was only one problem. Alex couldn't read Kanji.

Unable to understand the questions, she had asked Kenji—one of Karo's children who she had earlier introduced her to—to translate the questions for her, and write them onto the paper.

"First question," he started in English, scratching his medium brown hair. "What is your name?" Alex nodded. Kenji stared at her patiently, waiting for her answer while twirling his pencil with two fingers. "Your _full_ name?" he asked again and she stood up straight.

"But you know my name. Mrs. Karo introduced us like two weeks ago when I came here." Kenji rolled his eyes, tapping his newly sharpened #2 pencil on the back of the brown stool he was sitting on.

"Fine," she sighed. "Alex Paula McCarthy(2). A-L-E-X and P-A-U-L-A and M-C-C-A-R-T-H-Y." she said to the curious look on Kenji's face. "Oh, and I have a Japanese name too. Tatsuya, Arisa."

"Tatsuya...that sounds really familiar...Okay...got it. Number two"—Alex giggled(3)—"when is your birthday?" asked the taller boy, tapping his bright yellow pencil on his cheek. Alex massaged her forehead with her middle finger, unable to process the information at around dinner without food in her belly, and her stomach growling.

"October fourteenth. I'm a Libra." she answered while scratching the top of her head. Kenji processed the information, translating the answer under his breath. He then wrote it down on the blue lined paper. Alex snuck a peak. She didn't understand a word. It was all a bunch of random lines to her.

"Got it," he muttered to himself, just barely loud enough for Alex to hear. "Now...number three. What is your...nation-ality?" Alex could tell he had some trouble translating big words.

"Um... British-American-Japanese," she said as though she wasn't sure, having never giving thought to that particular topic. Could she have been Irish?

"Uh-huh. Number four. What are the name of your parents/guardians?" he asked, looking at her conflicted face. She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow simultaneously.

"Should I add Mrs. Karo too?" asked Alex to Kenji, somewhat self consciously. Said boy was grinning toothily, while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"I already added my mom and dad as your guardians," he said opening his eyes, seeing a grinning Alex.

Alex suddenly realized that she hadn't met Mrs. Karo's husband yet.

"Okay. Um...my parents names are Mrs. Mary McCarthy—she has her maiden's name by the way—and Mr. Ryou Tatsuya—who I believe is now somewhere in the general area. If you ask where I don't know," she said shrugging to herself.

"Um...Do you know where you can contact them?" asked Kenji in his nearly perfect English, while scratching his cheek, as though he thought that there may have been some tension in their current topic.

"My mom's phone number is XXX—XXX—XXXX. As for my father," she shrugged, "I have no idea."

"Um...number five," he said. "Eye color?" he glanced at her. "Violet-blue." Alex shifted uncomfortably in her seat, feeling embarrassed suddenly. "Number six, hair color?" he glanced once again. "Platinum blond...wavy and long." he scribbled something down onto his paper with a loud scratching noise. "Number seven, what is your formal location?" he asked, now looking towards the blond in curiosity.

"Turnbuckle," she answered, and he stared at her. "Why are you-Oh! Um, Turnbuckle town is in Idaho(4), born and raised," she said, nodding to herself. Pushing up his thin framed glasses to the bridge of his nose, he nodded.

"Oh, um one more," he said offhandedly. "Number 8. What are your goals for this year?" he looked at the girl curiously.

"Um..." she said, not at all expecting that type of question... "Well I..."

Thankfully, as though noticing that she was hesitant, Kenji decided to speak up.

"You don't have to answer the question until you go to school. Which is like a couple of weeks from now so~...you've got a lot of time until

/ it's due," he said reassuringly, while she sighed in relief, having no idea how to answer the question.

"Oh." she said, sounding slightly disappointed as she hopped off a large stool with a loud boom noise.

"Sorry!" she said to Kenji as she felt her face heat up in embarrassment. She didn't know that she was so loud.

"Ah, it's okay, see?" he jumped off his own high stool and made a much louder boom. "The floors are just really weak here." he mumbled something in Japanese at the end.

"Huh? Eiji? Fall through a roof? What?" asked Alex, in confusion.

"Oh, I guess saying in room studying for two weeks did help speaking in Japanese. I should tell Eiji that... Oh!" he scratched his head sheepishly, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks. "No, I was saying that it's a wonder how Eiji doesn't fall through the floor with all the jumping that he does. He jumps a lot." he added to Alex's blank stare. For a moment she had thought that Eiji was really over weight.

But he couldn't have been, she thought. The Eiji that she saw yesterday looked so...thin.

"He's really a good guy though. A bit too hyperactive. But cute. A lot of fan girls would agree with me." Both the occupants of that room laughed a little. Alex had learned what fan girl meant by watching a lot of television. She knew that a lot of the people who went to Beatles concerts were fan girls, such as her grandmother. No wonder she liked the Beatles so much. It ran in the family. Alex, who was tired of standing(which is a huge waste of time) walked over to one of the neat couches with the plastic on it.

Kenji followed her example.

"Where is Eiji right now?" asked a voice. Alex looked around the room. Since no one was there she assumed that it was her who said this./

"Uh...What was-are you scared of asking or something"—Alex supposed that he was curious about her eyes suddenly darting about the room—"He's at school I suppose..." Kenji's eyes glanced at his wrist watch which was latched onto his arm on the arm rest of the couch. "On, no he's probably out by now or at tennis practice..."

Alex took this opportunity to survey Kenji further. His hair was a medium brown which framed his thin face. He wore casual clothes, and his indigo blue eyes were staring at the roof in thought.

"No, no he's out of tennis practice by now I think. I'm not sure, I haven't been to the old house in years..." he continued to stare at the roof in thought. Alex excused herself by saying that she was gonna study.

"Oh. Okay, but come down at around...ooh, now it's dinner. Wow, time flies! Kinna, Yuki and Shikoku should be here soon. They're my brothers and sisters." said Kenji with a smile, pointing up at the clock. "Mom's making dinner tonight...hope it tastes really good." he said staring at the roof thoughtfully.

Alex dug her foot into the ground awkwardly and felt slightly bored. Then she decided to think about her new school. She dearly hoped that this school wouldn't have all of the making out or rumors or cliques of her old school. Or the violence. There was violence. One time a kid even got shot in the foot. By a be-be gun. It was a friend of hers. Or an acquaintance.

What really was the difference? Maybe she knew one better than the other. Or there really was no difference but snotty rich people used it to determine which people that they didn't like or did.

Alex didn't like those people. She'd rather have her old school than those people. They were annoying.

"Ne, Tatsuya-Chan-"

"You can call me Alex or" Alex flinched a little at the thought, "Arisa, if you'd like"

"you can go take a walk or something if you'd like. I'll call you or something when dinner's ready." Kenji smiled. Alex nodded.

"Or something." Jumping off the couch as dramatically as can be—before falling on her backside—Alex sprinted upstairs to her room—hand hovering over the stair rail—and grabbed her bright green cellphone with a brown cartoon puppy on it. Alex then sprinted back down the stairs and to Kenji who was still on the couch, now with wide eyes; as though surprised at how fast Alex ran.

Panting, Alex handed Kenji her cellphone before flopping onto the floor. Kenji surveyed Alex's cellphone for a moment.

"Hm. New model, standard. Green. I like it." He flipped open the cellphone and looked at it in great focus with his lips pursed in concentration. His eyebrows were furrowed too, and there were a ton of wrinkles formed on his forehead. It seemed that letters and numbers were even harder for him than speaking English, and made him look quite scary. After a couple of minutes, Kenji handed Alex back her phone with an "I like that puppy."

Heading outside wearing some loose jeans, her straw hat and Mrs. Karo's thick gray sweater, Alex began to meander about the streets. Normally, once the house was out of sight, Alex may have began to freak out, however that day was different.

The sun was shining meekly with clouds gathering in their dark hues. The sky was almost perfectly steely gray, Alex noticed as she sat down under a tree near a small shop, her straw hat blocking out the leaves and what remained of the weak sun light.

The wind was a little cold as it whipped around her face, though it felt as though it was the calm before a storm. It was going to rain or something. Alex learned that from Tiffany Bellwether, the pretty weather girl on channel 5 that Jordan—her old friend from America who had given her her hat—liked, very much.

Tiffany always got things wrong, but Alex had pretty much got down the right signs. For example, much sunshine does not mean that there will be snow the next day, during summer. It means that it will be sunny the next day also. Silly Tiffany Bellwether.

Deciding that the grass was a little too wet for her backside, Alex stood up after little more than a minute and began to look into the windows of tiny, interesting shops. She couldn't buy anything, unfortunately. She had no money and didn't know the currency. Well, she knew it was Yen, but still had none of it.

"If only there was something really interesting to look at." she thought as she walked by a huge building. By what looked like the entrance of the huge building was a tiny wall with a golden plaque and unreadable lines. Shrugging, Alex walked behind the large wall and heard something.

It was a strange sound, like a tapping which happened in more places in one. Pok. Pok. Pok.

Each sound was different, she thought as she followed the sound around the building. Some of the sounds were heavy and sounded as though they were pounded with force, and other's were so soft that they could barely be heard. The sound grew stronger once Alex reached an area surrounded by dying trees. In that small area, she could see many boys, ranging from a little shorter than Alex to way taller than her. It was sort of scary actually, when you compared the differences in height.

It took a few seconds before she realized that surrounding all of the boys was a large fence. In the large fence were nets, baskets full of bright yellow balls, and rackets in the hands of the taller boys.

Deciding that this was how to spend a day (watching a ton of cute boys play sports) Alex continued to look about the courts. Most of the shorter boys were putting aforementioned balls in aforementioned green baskets. They seemed to be having a tough time doing so. Alex couldn't understand why, the baskets didn't look so heavy.

None of the littler boys seemed to be doing anything interesting enough for a squirrels attention span, so Alex looked for one of the boys in blue, white and red jackets who all seemed to be really cute and really interesting and not to mention really, really good at tennis!

It took a little while but after a while, Alex found a really, really cute one with black hair matted down by a white cap, who was about the same height as Alex. He seemed to be the only short one wearing a uniform like that. He was so cute in fact, that Alex was on the verge of screaming the Japanese word for what she learned was 'cute.' She looked across the tennis court, and her eyes widened. Her breath just nearly caught in her throat.

There, standing confidently in some sort of stance was _him_ in all of his red haired and confident glory, her room neighbor and house mate. The youngest son of the family that she was staying with.

Kikumaru Eiji.

1-This is referring to my other story, Rivals.

2-A reference to James Paul McCartney, one of the Beatles, who shall live on in mine and Alex's heart for eternity. I told you, there will be Beatles references.

3-Alex is immature, that's all I'm gonna say. 4-Turnbuckle, Idaho is a place that I made up in one of my stories, called 'Lo and behold, a collection of fascinating folk tails' which is also mentioned in another story of mine, called 'The Ghost of my Past.' Personally, I don't think it's as good as this story(not trying to sound boastful), but still, please check it out. It's a Prince of Tennis story starring Fuji and Atobe. Quite a bit of drama, I think. It's a FujiOc story, and maybe a couple of others.


	5. And I saw her standing there

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana: Hi. Don't own PoT. Too lazy to have Sandy say this for me. I'm all alone right now. Stuck with homework...that I still haven't done... Mom's gonna be _pissed_.

"Talking"

"_English"_

_'_Thinking'

Oh, and I realized that I put some Japanese in these chapters, so for clarification,

Chan-A term used for girls, pets or younger boys

Ochibi-A term used for Echizen Ryoma which means; Baby, shorty, or something about a tiny elf or something. Sorry I haven't updated in two days!

Chapter 5: And I saw her standing there

Today was SUPER, SUPER cold, and the day that Kikumaru was having a rematch with O-CHIBI! Tennis practice was nearly over, so he had to beat him quick! He'd been saving up all of my super, special acrobatic moves for this time and was super psyched.

Never before had he shown any of those moves to anyone at the same time, but he had been practicing really, really hard for that day. He would finally beat O-Chibi!

He entered the court, and took his stance, staring determined at his Ochibi. His prey. For that day. Which was not in May. Which is Today.

Racket in his hands, he watched as Ochibi threw the ball upwards and jumped. High. So high that even his hat lifted off his head for a moment. Even Kikimaru would admit that in that moment, Ochibi looked really, really cool.

The freshmen ruined the moment.

"TWIST SERVE!" yelled the one in the colorfully bright green t-shirt with the big mouth and uni-brow. Wasn't he supposed to be picking up tennis balls? Kikumaru sped up to the net and smiled as it went the opposite way that he was heading. He lifted up his arm gracefully and put his racket hand behind his back.

3. His racket was in course with the ball. It was almost ready.

2. The ball made contact with his racket. This was always his favorite part.

1. He added pressure and sent the ball back flying. Normally, this would be an ordinary feat for him, but today he had done it in just three seconds. A new record.

But, of course Ochibi easily ran to the ball in no time at all, and returned it. It took him great focus though, Kikumaru could see that. Ochibi lobbed it.

Kikumaru smiled and easily back peddled to where the ball would land and readied his racket for that great feel of contact. It never came. The ball had taken an unexpected turn and angled itself to the ground in front of him. It then quickly span to the outer line.

Kikumaru smiled excitedly. "That was so cool, O-CHI-BI! When did you learn to that, Nya! I'm never gonna win at this pace." Ochibi smirked.

This was going to be very fun. Before Kikumaru knew it, the game was nearly over with Ochibi in the lead, 5 games to 3. He definitely couldn't let his Ochibi win so easily.

Again before he knew it, Ochibi had won. 6 games to 4.

Kikumaru pouted as both he and Ochibi came up to the net and shook hands.

"Geez, Ochibi. If you keep getting better, even Fuji-ko won't have a hope!" Kikumaru shivered.

He didn't know where or how but he could feel Fuji's smiling glare on his neck. It was an extremely scary and foreboding sort of feeling. It didn't feel good.

"Good game, Kikumaru-senpai." said that little Ochibi with a smirk, tugging down the brim of his bright white cap. Seriously, when did he get that good?

Ochibi then walked away, out of the court and out of Kikumaru's eye sight just when he was about to give Ochibi a big lecture on why he, Kikumaru, was going to beat him the day after tomorrow.

He stopped, however, by the sight in the corner of his left eye. His breath caught in his throat. It was _her. _The ghost that haunted his house.

Kikumaru had come up with a theory about her. Why she was following him and stuff.

His grandfather also had red hair, which is where he got it from. So Kikumaru figured that, since the girl looked Japanese and was haunting the same house where his grandpa also used to live, she must've had some kind of beef with him.

And because he also had red hair, the ghost must've confused him and his grandfather and so wanted to destroy him and/or take her revenge.

Kikumaru headed to the gate door, using all of his will power not to run away. He tried his best to remember Tsubaki-Chan's advice. In fact he may have sprained his ultra-powerful brain. It didn't feel good.

Closer, he walked towards the girl. Closer, she didn't seem to notice him. Kikumaru tried to convince himself that he wasn't a stalker of some sort, and tried to make himself look as casual as could be. Closer...he wasn't a stalker.

~K~O~K~O + K~A~G~I~

Alex stood still by the gate, one of her hand's clutching the fence wires, the other pulling down her hat, and her eyes wide. She couldn't help but find the fact that she had found Eiji really really lucky, especially after just randomly exploring her new neighborhood. It was very strange to see Eiji awake, and so...energetic!

Before she had realized, Eiji had left the court and was no longer in sight. Alex's eyes searched about the tennis court for another moment, wondering if she had missed him or something.

But no. He was not there. Alex pouted. She had been looking forward to finally be able to talk to him with her new skills in speaking Japanese. She had only learned the basics but believed that she knew well enough.

"Um-um..." Alex turned to the her left, her long hair swaying with her dramatically. Alex made a mental note to cut it later. She then saw the source of the 'ums'.

It was he, himself, Kikumaru Eiji.

He seemed very nervous as he swayed back and forth on the balls of his feet. Alex stared at him curiously, wondering why he chose to suddenly come towards her.

"Hello..." If it wasn't just Alex, Eiji looked extremely stiff shouldered and nervous.

"Hello, Eiji!" said Alex cheerfully, her head tilted. Eiji's shoulders got a little stiffer.

"How do you know my name, Nya~?" he asked, his voice was nearly shivering, somehow. Alex's smile widened, and her eyes did as well.

"Alex-Chan told that from my lord superiors!" said Alex, saluting. Technically, Eiji, having already been in the Kikumaru family his entire life, was also her house superior. By far, most likely.

Eiji's eyes widened even more, and his arms went out in front of him, as though shielding himself.

"Noo~! Kami-sama's angels and him want me dead, too? Why, Kami-sama, why?" he seemed to panic, his arms held up dramatically to the sky. Alex giggled. It just seemed funny, because though she couldn't understand his reaction, it seemed as though she thought she was an angel or something.

Alex felt slightly flattered. Who would mistake her for an angel? She wasn't that pretty, she knew. If anything, she was below average in cute, and way below average in pretty, and as far as Alex knew, Angels were supposed to look all angelic and graceful, right?

"NYA~! Why-Huh?"

At that moment Alex's phone chose to go off.

_"Shake it shake it_

_shake it, shake it_

_shake it, feel good_

_shake it, shake it_

_shake it shake it_

_feel good_

_City's breaking down on a camel's back_

_They just have to go 'cause they don't know whack_

_So all you fill the streets it's appealing to see_

_You won't get out the county 'cause your damn ass free_

_You got a new horizon, it's ephemeral style_

_A melancholy town where we never smile_

_And all I wanna hear is the message beep_

_My dream's they gotta kiss _

_because I don't get to sleep, no_

_Windmill windmill for the land"_

Alex did a 360 and flipped open her bright green cellphone. There was a thud sound from behind her.

"Hello?" said Alex, in English. Who would be calling her?

**"Yo, Arisa-san."** Alex both smiled and flinched. It was good to here Kenji's voice, but she was very unused to the name 'Arisa.' **"It's time to come home now. Mom and everyone else is here."**

Something in Alex's stomach stirred both pleasantly and unpleasantly.

"Everyone?" asked Alex, trying not to convey her fear in her voice, which had disobeyed her.

**"Don't be nervous,"** said Kenji. **"They're all really nice."** Alex suddenly had a thought.

"Does you want Alex to get Eiji?" asked Alex, a slight smirk on her face.

**"Oh yeah, that would be great. But do you know where his school is?"**

Alex was about to respond but was suddenly distracted. Eiji had just jumped in front of her and was shouting, "Why? Why are you smirking like that? What do I have to with a phone call? Why does a ghost have a phone?"

**"Is that Eiji?" **asked Kenji, startling Alex, who had forgotten that she was on the phone with him.

"Yup!" chirped Alex, who felt happy all of a sudden.

**"Let me speak with him, just for a moment." **Despite being slightly scared by Kenji's sudden command, she did so and held out her phone to Eiji, and waited with a smile on her face.

"For Eiji," said Alex in Japanese.

Eiji stopped his frightful ranting for a moment to stare at the phone, as though it was a rather large bug.

Alex still stood there, and waited. She was doing her best to be patient, but in all truth she becoming bored. Eiji's reaction to her had been funny at first but not it was just sort of annoying.

"Kikumaru!" Alex jumped at the loud, deep voice which suddenly seemed to rumble each of the tennis courts and the very ground where everyone stood, like that of a great ogre. When looking around she found that everyone seemed to be looking at a point behind Alex. Face contorted in fear, Alex turned, only to find herself face to chest with somebody.

Looking up, Alex saw what looked like the very face of a God almighty himself, or at least a king in his castle. With wild golden brown hair that glistened in the setting sun so well and eyes like deep pools of hazel that gave no emotion and were hidden behind the glare of the sun on his glasses, he was most likely the most awesome looking person that Alex had ever seen.

"What are you doing, Kikumaru?" asked the person, his godly face looking incredibly dark and stern.

Alex turned back to Eiji to see his reaction. His eyes were wide, as though in great fear and his mouth was hanging down in what looked like awe and also fear. Alex never thought that that combo was impossible but now everything seemed possible. Somehow, it was still quite cute.

Feeling oddly out of place, with a feeling of intruding, Alex backed a way, behind Kikumaru.

"Kenji," Alex whispered on the phone. "I'll call you back."

"Tezuka, do you always have to be so scary, it's frightening!" said a calm, feminine voice mockingly. Alex looked over from Eiji's side and her tongue nearly lagged out of her mouth along with a bucketful drool. There, standing a little shorter than the God whom she now supposed was Tezuka was what looked like a prince! His hair was a long, layered honey brown that went down to his neck and shined with an ominous light in the setting sun. His skin was pale, his face and body thin and feminine, his eyes closed and his lips in what looked like an everlasting grin.

"Fuji." said the person who seemed to be Tezuka in either greeting or warning. He was quite stoic and it was hard to tell. Alex looked to the person called Fuji whose smiled seemed to widen. Then, to her surprise, the closed eyed face seemed to be pointing in her direction.

"And who is this?" asked Fuji in what seemed to be a friendly sort of tone. Alex ducked behind Eiji, suddenly shy. "Is it a first year?"

"Go get Kago-san." said Tezuka shortly.

"Aye aye, captain!" Fuji complied, still sounding calm and slightly teasing. His footsteps hurried away, barely noticeable about the louder, less dainty foot steps and pounding of tennis balls every where.

There was an awkward silence for a time, with Alex standing behind Eiji's shaking back, and Tezuka doing who knows what. Alex had tried to look over Eiji's shoulder but found that she was only about the same height as the shoulder itself. After what felt like a couple of minutes, Fuji's dainty footsteps sauntered back along footsteps that were a little rougher.

"Kago-san." Tezuka's voice greeted.

"Tezuka." A voice that was either female or male said as well. Curious, Alex poked her out from behind Eiji's side once more and saw a person just a little shorter that Fuji with friendly golden eyes and brown hair in a ponytail. They were the same red white and blue uniform as Tezuka, Fuji, Eiji and the other boys that were good looking and good at tennis.

"What's up?" asked the brown haired girl or boy. "You dragged me from training the other girls, so it's gotta be important."

Fuji pointed over at Alex's direction with a smile. Kago looked over as well.

"And...this has to do with me because..." the person waved about their hand while staring at Tezuka as though bored, who stared back with a frightening intensity.

"Because," said Fuji, breaking the intensity of the moment. Alex felt as though she was suddenly splashed with cold water. "she is a girl, and we thought that she may have been in the girl's tennis team. So, we asked you."

"Oh~" said Kago, smiling. "why didn't you just say so!" Alex felt that if she were one to roll her eyes, she would have. But at the moment she was a little too scared to, for at the moment, Kago was surveying her. "Uh, yeah, I've never seen her before." said Kago after a minute or so.

All eyes were suddenly on Alex, who stepped out from behind Eiji completely and smiled at them all despite the incredibly nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Hi! Me name McCarthy Alex, I an American here to learn. I come here next week." she smiled wider.

"Your grammar sucks!" said Kago, who was clutching her stomach in laughter and looked as though she was about to fall. Eiji turned around to look at her, and the closeness of it all made Alex blush, but she didn't stop smiling. After a while, he pouted and looked like he was about to cry. And before she knew it, all of the oxygen in the world seemed not to reach her lungs and her feet seemed to be lifted off from the floor.

"Wah! I'm sorry I called you a ghost, Ares-Chan!" said Eiji, sounding mournful, his hug becoming even tighter. He seemed intent on suffocating her. Alex couldn't even correct him on how he said her name wrong, though she very much wanted to.

"You-" Alex gasped for air. "can call me Tats-" she gasped for air once more, her face feeling warm and light. "uya Arisa."

"Eiji," said Fuji calmly. Eiji turned his head towards Fuji, his grip loosening for a moment. But just a moment. Fortunately, that moment was long enough for Alex to get one good breath of fresh air.

"What?" asked Kikumaru curiously.

"There's a 99.9% chance that if you don't let go soon, she will faint." Eiji looked towards the new voice and from the side angle, Alex could just barely make out his pouting face, though her eyesight was becoming blurry.

"Nya, I'm sorry!" he said loudly and apologetically, letting Alex down who sighed in relief and tried to take as many breaths as she could, in case it happened again.

As soon as she could breath regularly once more, Alex looked up at the people who were now staring at her and Kikumaru. There was yet another person among them who was quite scary. He stood even taller than Tezuka, his eyes were hidden behind thick, glaring glasses, and his skin paler than everyone else's. He didn't wear the same uniform as everyone else, but instead a white t-shirt and bright green sweats with a white line running down each side. Underneath his arm was a forest green notebook.

"Hello, Inui." said Fuji. His eyes suddenly opened. "I didn't hear you coming this time."

Alex felt like she was deprived of air, as though Eiji had hugged her once more. The sight of the prince's eyes were too much for her. They were the bluest of light blues that she had ever seen, like the sky itself.

"Ah, your hearing must've been...occupied." The man smiled one of the most creepiest that Alex had ever seen, which could've been compared to that of the creepy stranger that Alex had met on the plane. It just looked so...unnatural and forced and creepy and intentional and evil.

Fuji closed his eyes and smiled.

"Who knows...I-nu-i~" Somehow, the tension from when Tezuka and Kago had been talking had come forward once more and felt quite evil.

Alex felt a jolt on her shoulders and jumped. She heard Kago laughing from beside her.

"Ah, I needed that so bad." said Kago, wiping something invisible from her eye with a finger. "Anyway, I'm Kago Natsuki, the captain of the girl's tennis team. It's nice to meet you."

Alex smiled in understanding. "Ah~, so Natsuki be a girl. That explanations." Alex could feel the stares on h er back and knew that she had done something wrong. But the stares seemed to lessen when Natsuki began to laugh.

"You're strange, Tatsuya," said Natsuki, and Alex was beginning to wonder why everyone seemed to prefer her Japanese name. Perhaps it was easier to pronounce. "Hm. Your last name sounds familiar."

"Everybody say that a lot." said Alex, smiling up at Natsuki who was quite taller than her.


	6. Black bird

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana: Sorry I haven't updated in a while...I sort of forgot to write the rest...Uh...Yeah...awkward. Uh-**SANDY**!

Sandy: Coming! Coming! Hi Rana doesn't own Pot, or nothing really, except for a couple of fake books, a couple of fake cities and her original characters, also known as OCs. That does not include me, however, Cassandra Pear Thingamabob, who actually exists and is Rana's somehow Japanese twin sister from St. Glubia junior high. I am good at cooking, sewing, and knitting! The perfect wife-That's for all you guys*winks So if anyone would like to meet me, I have a profile on Ari-

Rana: Stop freaking trying to get online dates again, Sandy! Do you want an injured collarbone _again_. You just almost said my real name!

Sandy: No...and I'm sorry...*Runs away and cries

Rana: *Mumbles Freaking sensitive Mary-Sue. How the hell did she get a personality on her own...OH! Enjoy! Sorry it was so long! Oh, if you wanna see Alex and Natsuki and Yuma, just go to the profile. Also, I am planning to make a very minuscule profile for Sandy or whatever her name is.

Chapter Six: Black bird

While Natsuki was talking, Alex kept her eyes alert and about. The last time that she hadn't, at least three people had came by without her notice. And that was why, she may have been the only one to see the gate of the tennis court Kikumaru had previously been in swing open and slam against the wall of the court gate. Out of the gate walked the black-green haired boy with the hat that Alex had seen and another person with also black hair, and a hat that covered their eyes. They both wore the same tennis jersey that Eiji and the rest wore.

"Ochibi! Raven-Chan~!" yelled Eiji excitedly, his arms spread out as though he were about to fly. "Where were you, Raven-Chan? You missed my ghost story!" he whined, still running to them. The one called Raven turned their head in his direction and stepped away. That only left Ochibi to stand there. Alex wondered why it is that Raven-chan did that and had not saved the boy next to her.

"Ah." said Natsuki suddenly, clapping her hands together. "You must be really confused then, while we're all talking together like we know each other."

Alex wanted shake her head and say that she understood who everyone was, but realized that that probably wasn't true. Instead she nodded towards Natsuki.

"Well, that's Inui Sadaharu," she said, pointing at the creepy one with black hair, and extremely thick glasses who was writing _something_ down in his notes. "and that Prince right there is Fuji Syusuke."

She pointed at the handsome prince-like boy that looked also like a girl.

"Thank you, Natsuki-Chan." said Fuji, waving back weakly. Natsuki nodded.

"The stoic one right there is Tezuka Kunimitsu." she said, pointing at the god like one who looked a little like he could smite Kikumaru where he stands without at all changing his face. "Don't get him crossed, or he might skin you alive." she whispered. Alex shuddered.

"Just kidding, uh that bouncy red head right there is Kikumaru Eiji, famed acrobat around here." said Natsuki, winking. Kikumaru turned back to them for a second and beamed at Natsuki before Tezuka called his attention back.

"Acrobat?" asked Alex, smiling a little more. "There is circus, here?" Alex felt a little hopeful. Maybe she could survive life better if she knew a circus performer!

"Uh, no. He plays like an acrobat in tennis."

"Oh." said Alex disappointedly. She thought that she would meet a real circus performer and may have even gotten free tickets to a circus and steal an elephant once or twice before setting it free to it's natural habitat in Africa. Then it would ride off into the sunset with it's family.

"But you have to see him play tennis, it's pretty cool, too. And there is a carnival coming up in a month or two, that would be pretty cool, right?" Alex nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, nearly forgot. Those two over there are Echizen Ryoma and Night Raven."

'How Mary-sue-ish.' thought Alex. The two were heading over to their direction, talking and walking simultaneously. Their talking eventually became loud enough to hear. They seemed to be arguing.

"You're stupid." said Night, who's voice was blank. "How could I have lost because of the fact that you know Tezuka?"

"I didn't say that, stupid." said Echizen, his voice sounding similar to hers. "I said that 'You lost because you didn't train enough.' I didn't even mention Tezuka-buchou."

"Well, you thought it." Night scoffed. "I know you did." Alex continued to stare at the two, now thinking of a deranged married couple.

"Momo-senpai was right," said Echizen, his arms behind his head. He both looked and sounded lazy.

"In what?" asked Night, his eyes were narrowed dangerously.

"Your cat looks nice in whip cream."

"WTF?" Both first years looked to the source of the noise, who was covering their mouth and blushing. Alex had blurted it out by accident, thinking that she had been lost in translation.

"We don't know," said Natsuki. "and I have a feeling that we don't want to."

Alex nodded, feeling that if she lowered her hands from her mouth that something even worse would fall out. She wasn't one to cuss, so she should have been the most surprised.

"But you're still so stupid, Ryoma! I totally won that game but that girl there distracted me!" stated Night, pointing at Alex. Said girl gasped, unaware that she had caused such a mishap. She felt that she have apologized but instead sat down on a bench and stared down at the ground, thinking of what she had done. Eiji sat next to her and smiled apologetically while the two shorter people continued to argue.

"Sorry~!" he stated, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I really thought you were a ghost and I got scared and sorry for what I said."

Alex was about to ask what it was that he said, but was interrupted just as she had opened her mouth.

"Hey, Echizen, Night! Stop you're fighting and 20 laps around the tennis court for disturbing practice!" Alex, as well as Eiji and just about everyone else jumped back at the sudden awesome loudness that was Tezuka's voice. Eiji sighed, as though happy. "Don't think that excuses you too, Kikumaru! 25 laps!"

Eiji sighed, and stood up. Sending a wink and a weak smile in her direction, Eiji then turned away and began to run with the two shorter people. It looked almost funny in comparison.

Alex looked to Natsuki to start a conversation but found that she was already out of the gate and heading elsewhere. So really, there was no one to talk to.

Fuji and Tezuka scared her a little bit and Eiji and the rest were running.

And there was no way that she was talking to that creeper Inui, who was at the moment grinning like some sort of mad scientist and writing god-knows-what into his notebook like there was no tomorrow.

So, the tragic heroine of her thoughts leaped into her own subconscious and into her alternate reality in which she had just sent an elephant back to it's family. And in it's gratitude it was giving her a lifetime amount of pizza!

She sighed happily. And then Eiji popped up in front of her and was grinning after a long day of farming his llamas and grooming the penguins at his farm.

"Ne! Arisa-Chan, you were dreaming and your phone went off." But, why did Alex bring a phone when she was in the Alpaca country? And why was one of Eiji's penguins calling her.

Eiji put the phone to her ear, despite that she closed her eyes again.

"**Arisa-san? Arisa-san, are you there?"** Alex nodded, then giggled. She realized that the penguin couldn't see her nodding.

"Talk to me, Penguin. How are the tomatoes...doing? By the way, penguin, Eiji really likes you, a-and he says hi."

"**Uh-huh. Let me talk to Eiji for a moment, will you?"** Alex complied and thrust the phone in Eiji's direction.

He stared at it curiously before holding it to his ear, his face curious. Alex couldn't hear the exact words that Kenji said.

"But, I didn't do anything!"

Kenji's voice spoke on the other end. Suddenly, a thought erupted in Alex's mind. Had Eiji already completed his laps?

"Transfer student? At our house? But do we have a room ready?" Alex perked up her ears, knowing that they were talking about her and wondering how left out of the picture Eiji was.

The voice on the other end sounded strained and like it was losing it's patience.

"Really? How did Mom do that all by herself?"

The voice spoke again but a lot louder than the past few times.

"Oh, you and Kinna helped? EH? Family reunion? Really? Amazing! Hm? Tennis practice? Yeah, almost over. Yeah, uh huh. See ya then! Bye-bye!" He hung up the green phone and stared at the puppy for a bit before handing the phone back to Alex, a big smile implanted on his face.

"Ne, do you know Ken-ken-Chan and Kinoko-Chan?" asked Eiji while sitting on the bench next to Alex, and turning to her, his form leaned down to her height. Alex thought that it was just her imagination, but thought that he was talking as though she were a child.

"Is that name belonging Kenji-kun?" asked Alex, nearly laughing at the super cute nickname that the serious and cool boy had. It didn't at all fit the image that she saw for him.

The red haired boy nodded vigorously, a big smile on his face. Alex realized that there was a band-aid on the side of his cheek.

"He's my older brother!" he said, happily. "And what about Kinoko-Chan?"

Alex stared at Eiji, never having heard that name.

"Oh!" he said, clapping his hands together. "That's right! She's still with Tokimoki-Chan and Suzu-Chan!" he said, clapping his hands together. Alex stared at him, curious to know who the rather random sounding people were. But apparently, he didn't realize that he was talking to a complete stranger and did not elaborate.

Alex sighed and decided to take the initiation.

"Who's 'Tokimoki' and 'Suzu-Chan'?"

He ignored her and was watching that Tezuka guy in the corner of his eye. Alex copied him and smiled.

Tezuka was yelling at Night-Chan and Echizen, who appeared to have finished their laps. They both had their heads down.

"Do you think that you have run enough?" he asked calmly-with a h int of malice-after some time of yelling. Both Night-Chan and Echizen looked up, their eyes drooping slightly, and their breathing quick and tired.

"Yeah~." They answered in unison. Out of curiosity, Alex stood up and walked towards Night-Chan, who was about the same height as her, and looked them in the eyes.

Night-Chan stood back and looked at Alex with her one showing eye (the other one covered by her neck length black hair) which Alex noticed was a bright, beautiful blue color, which was a little darker than Fuji's own.

"Eh? Why's there a girl on the boys tennis team?" asked Alex, leaning in to look closer into Night-Chan's beautiful, wide eyes. And then, she felt a shove on her chest and was forced to back away. She looked back at her shover and found that she was being pulled away by some old lady with a long, brown ponytail and a pink and white jumpsuit, who was clutching her shoulder.

Alex stared at her back, wondering what she could have been kidnapped for...but now that she thought of it, _was_ she being kidnapped. Oh no. She was being kidnapped by a pervert disguised as an old lady who turned out to be the owner of the elephant that she wanted to steal and now she was going to die.

Eventually, the old lady stopped at a dark, secluded part of the school. Stared at her back, chest brimming with a sort of unknown fear and nervousness. If any in the world had a chance to kidnap a girl like her, that moment was now!

The old lady looked at her, wrinkles seeped deep in her face and her eyes shadowed and threatening.

"What do you know about Naito Raven?" she asked, in Japanese. Alex blinked and pouted. She had almost looked forward to being kidnapped and suddenly fighting off ninjas and being called a hero.

"Alex don't know her. Raven-Chan is a girl, me know that. But I don't know why she is in boy's tennis team. I know she and cat looking person argue a lot."

"Kikumaru?" she asked, looking slightly taken back. Alex shook her head. She would be devastated to be misunderstood.

"No! No, she argue with Echi-zen" said Alex, wondering if she pronounced his name wrong, or if that was the right person. Japanese was really hard to speak, but she could for some reason understand it easier. "I think..."

"Ah, that makes sense. But that doesn't explain how you know she's a girl." She stared down at Alex, who cursed her shortness. The older persons eyes became darker.

"Uh...I don't know...she just looks like one..."

"Don't tell anyone." She stated, and Alex nodded. Alex looked around and then sped away back to the tennis courts and ran to Eiji who was still sitting on the bench and noticed her while she was a couple of feet away.

"Ah! Ares-Chan! Hello!" he said, smiling as she sat down on the bench, panting embarrassingly and leaning back onto the chain link fence behind her. "Where did Ryuzaki-sensei take you?" he asked innocently. Alex stared at him, deciding whether or not to tell him of the pointless conversation or not.

There really was no point, and this Ryuzaki person obviously wanted her not to tell anybody of what happened.

"You!" Speak of the devil... Alex looked up and saw the Ryuzaki person looking at her. "Join the girl's tennis team. I have a feeling that I need to keep an eye on you." She glared at the confused blond girl, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Huh? Really?" Alex asked, her eyes were wide.

"Yes." said Ryuzaki, nodding once, firmly, before looking at Fuji, the princely one. "Fuji, go get Kago and Yurizawa." Fuji gave an obviously fake sigh.

"Geez coach, eventually I'm going to get tired of going over there and seeing all of the cute girls," he said, still smiling. Alex recognized one of those names as the girl, Kago Natsuki, who had been there not fifteen minutes ago. She wondered if Natsuki would turn into the hulk after having to come over so much. And it was all Alex's fault if everyone died. Somehow, she was not scared by this, but amused.

And then Alex thoughts drifted back to the fact that she was suddenly joining the girl's tennis team without her own consent. She had never tried her hand at tennis and wondered whether or not she would be good at it. Alex was flexible enough, she knew this after years of cheer leading, and perhaps a tennis racket would be similar to the baton, and maybe she could somehow throw the tennis racket to hit the ball or something. Maybe she could be good at it...or maybe she would suck and be an epic fail and let everyone down during a game.

For the first time in a while, she turned nervous, and then slightly miffed. Why did she just suddenly have to join the tennis team, her hands gripped harder on the loose part of Mrs. Karo's think gray sweatshirt and the air became a little warmer. Why was she not given a choice?

"Hey, Ares-chan, don't be nervous! Just do your best!" Alex looked at him, then smiled, and nodded.

"I will!" Alex flexed her tiny arm for a moment and then stood up, facing the captain of the girl tennis team. "Hey, Natsu-Chan!" said Alex waving up to her. Natsuki was quite a bit taller than Alex and it was sort of hard to wave to her.

"Ah, hey Tatsuya-san. Didn't see you there. You sort of scared me, actually-"

"Alex challenges you to a match!" Alex blurted out in one breath, then covering her mouth with her hands. What was with her mouth that day? It kept blurting out stuff.

Natsuki raised an eyebrow, then smiled.

"Okay. Let me just get my racket." Natsuki jogged away, leaving a girl with long black hair like a straight waterfall and close blue eyes like that of Fuji, the prince, in front of Alex. Out of breath, Alex sat down and let out a great sigh of exhaustion, and leaning back to the bench so fast that it hurt a little.

"What did I get myself into?" asked Alex, too tired to talk in English.

"A match with our famous captain, Tatsuya Arisa-san." said the black haired one, who was writing in a notebook similar to that of Inui's. "She's rather unbeatable. Except for some occasions. Her winning percentage against you at the moment is 95%." she said, continuing to write.

Alex sank out of her bench, to the floor. She was afraid. Very afraid. She only had a 5% chance of winning. That was almost nothing.

"But don't worry," said the Yuma person, a secretive smile on her face that was also a lot like Fuji's. "that's only because I have not gathered your tennis and cheer leading data all together and incorporated it in the game. Oop. Never mind. Putting together your tennis data, cheer leading data and ability to get out of tough situations...wow. 40% chance of victory. That's a lot better." she smiled at Alex, who felt so relieved that she could cry.

Perhaps she could win a point off of the captain and would not be an epic fail. Maybe she could even lead her team to the regionals or wherever they go! Now that she thought of it, she probably should have asked around about tennis rules and such from the tennis team around her, or perhaps asked about a racket. It seemed really smart at the moment, except Natsu-Chan was already coming back with a racket in her hand.

At a four feet interval, Natsuki stopped and peered at Alex curiously.

"Where's your racket, Tatsuya?" Alex realized that she had not at all used her time wisely while Natsuki was gone. She bit the side of her lip and Natsuki, as though reading her thoughts, shrugged. "Oh well. Eiji, can she borrow yours?"

Alex looked to Eiji, who grinned widely. There was a tiny bit of red on his cheeks.

"Of course, of course! How lucky! It's right here!" he reached under the bench in one swift movement and out came a bright green racket, that sort of looked like her cellphone. This alone made her smile.

"Thank you, Eiji-kun!" said Alex, a little bit of determination in her smile. Despite this, she wasn't feeling very confident at all. The dreaded moment would soon be upon her and she would be an epic fail and embarrass herself in front of her new brother and a ton of people she didn't know. The thought made her flush and it felt like a bucket of hot water went over her body and somehow chilled her insides.

Like a sudden, chilling realization, Alex saw Natsuki, her apparent captain, walk into the high gated court and walk to the side of the net side that was closest to the gate. Alex took a deep breath and at the end of it, opened her eyes extremely wide. Her legs prepared themselves and she crouched down extremely low. She had to do this right or get injured. Inside of her head, she started a countdown.

'5. 4. 3. 2...'

"What are you doing, Tatsuya?"

"**ONE!**" Her legs, like elastic, un-crouched and she jumped higher and higher, until her head went to above the top of the gates and her arms hooked onto the very top of the barbed wire tops, scratching themselves slightly. "Aw, I forgot my racket..."

"Tatsuya? What are you doing?" yelled Natsuki from the court. Alex wanted to straighten her hair very badly. Most of it was over her eyes and she was sure that it looked very messy.

Alex took another deep, deep breath and felt all of the muscles in her arms become rigid. Then she hooked her feet into the holes that were very close to her hands. In her head she counted once more before lifting off from the gate and flew up, past the gate and above the tennis courts where she would be playing. She imagined that wings sprouted out from her back. Unfortunately, that was impossible so she used her arms like wings and felt go through the sky, her hair flying about freely.

She felt free, as though her stress was all gone. Her body was falling like a rag doll, yes, but it was all very fun.

"Tatsuya!" Natsuki's voice yelled and she knew that people were watching somehow, despite her eyes being closed.

"Ares-Chan!" At her name being called, she opened her eyes and straightened her arms. She was still falling, and so decided to make it a little more fun in almost a second. Then she began to spin and very soon felt her feet land on the ground. It was a very basic trick that she had learned while being a cheerleader, called the suicide pyramid. It was where it looked like you were about to fall while on a pyramid. It was very fun.

"Tatsuya, what were you doing?" Alex blinked and stared at Natsuki, who was staring back very sternly, her arms crossed on her chest. "That was really dangerous! I will not allow it on these courts."

Alex pouted, feeling like a tiny child while the wind blew a hair out of her eye.

"Sorry, captain. I was feeling kind of stressed out, and I always jump and stuff to get un-nervous!" she put her arms up as high as she could to show how very high she could jump.

Natsuki sighed, her head in her hands.

"Oh, right! Eiji!" Alex ran to the gate where Eiji was turned around on the bench to watch the game and was now looking at Alex. "I need the racket and I left it on the ground! Could you please give it back to me?" Alex gave her best puppy dog eyes, since she was too 'tired' from the jump to walk back to the other side.

"Sure!" said Eiji, who walked over near the gate and found the racket. He then swung it in his grip for a moment before throwing it over the gate. It came down and Alex waited for it, and for a second thought that it was a baton, and caught it very easily.

"Thank you!" Alex smiled, with her eyes closed and her teeth showing. She stared at the racket as she walked back to the court and stood in the middle of it, then looked at Natsuki, waiting for her to hit the ball to her.

"Yurizawa!" called Natsuki to the closest person to the gate, who looked like Fuji. It was the girl who had inspired Alex earlier, who now remembered what Yurizawa had said. She had a 40% chance of winning this game. "Would you mind being the referee?"

Yurizawa looked up from her notebook and smiled, a very kind smile.

"Of course, I would be delighted, Kago-san." Yurizawa walked over to the closed gate to the courts and opened it, then bowing in front of Natsuki as she almost passed by her. Yurizawa then climbed up high chair at the very center of the courts and outside of the white lines, then settling herself and smiling. "One set match! Seishun Academy's Kago Natsuki versus McCarthy Alex otherwise known as Tatsuya Arisa of Turnbuckle's Jim Turnbuckle high school! Decide who serves!" Yuma sat leaned back into her high chair and crossed her legs, looking very much like a queen.

Alex walked to the net to see why Natsuki had put the top of her racket to the floor and held the handle as though she would spin it.

"Rough or smooth?" asked Natsuki. Alex wondered why Natsuki would be asking her what kind of rock she had always wanted at this time.

"What?"

"Don't you know this much of tennis?" asked Natsuki. Alex gulped with her heart in her throat. This was the moment, she thought, where she would be discovered as an epic fail. Perhaps...she could lie?

"No, she doesn't."


	7. Things we said today

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana: I really liked writing this chapter, but I was writing it and chapter 6 ½ at the same time. That was why it's been taking a long time. Strangely, chapter 7 comes before 6 ½, but I did it to add suspense, so yea! Also, Alex's name changes because Kenji refers to her as Arisa while she thinks of herself as Alex. The same will go for the other characters. Oh! Right, I don't own Pot or Strawberry Shortcake or the Beatles. However I do own Alex, Tsubaki, Natsuki and the poem 'Don't Grow Up, please?'.

Chapter 7-Things we said today

Walking barefoot around the Kikumaru household, Kenji Kikumaru searched for the report that Arisa, his new little sister, had made. He didn't have long either. He would have to mail it soon, despite what he had told her earlier that day.

The school letter had said that Arisa had to write a poem expressing herself, and she had. Except she had left before telling him where it was! So far, he had searched through her room, and his room along with his sibling's room-where he had found so much blackmail material, he could've exploded-and his parent's room.

"Jeez," he said, resting on the house's plastic rapped yet soft cushioned couch, face drenched with sweat. "I can't believe I can't find a simple essay. I'll be a failure as an older brother...again. I don't wanna let Arisa-Chan down..."

Kenji sighed and gazed about the room half heartedly. Everything had been as neat and tidy as it had been in the morning, save for a couple of papers on the kitchen counters that he had used to write Arisa's personal information. With another sigh, he lifted lifted himself up from the couch and slouched to the refrigerator for some milk or coca-cola or something.

Reaching the refrigerator, he was about to retch it open and grab a drink when he saw it. His ticket. His paradise. His answer. His savior.

"The poem! It was magnetized to the fridge!" With it was a note. Kenji looked at it for a moment before realizing that it was in English.

"Dear Kenji, I was sort of nervous about the poem, so I wondered if you would read it and spell check and translate it and stuff! I hope it doesn't trouble you or anything like that! ~_Alex McCarthy, esquire_."(1) Kenji sighed, despite his feelings of gladness and the relief of his stress knot, even if the relief was small. Turning over the small note, he glanced at the poem.

"Don't Grow Up, please?(2)

Remember when we were young and invincible? We thought that we were the heroes.

Then we grew up and learned that nothing is the same anymore.

The heroes we thought we knew are all gone. All of their magic used up.

Nothing is the same anymore. Nobodies gone yet you're all alone.

Nobodies the same anymore.

All you can do is stand and watch as childlike wonder stands up and walks away. We are not the same anymore.

We are all different. Our emotions are changing. Where do we go from here?

Our teddy bears abandoned us, our night light's long gone. Where did our blankies(3) go?

Then we grew up and learned that nothings the same anymore.

Now we're getting ready for our big kids bikes and our text books. And sometimes, you just wanna run away, hey.

Nothings the same anymore.

Then, we all got taller, some more than others, hey. Now we all just gotta say yay, hey.

Say yay for the people like me who haven't grown up yet, who don't know where to go from here. All we can do is stand and watch as childlike wonder runs away.

It's best to keep it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nobodies the same anymore.

Let's not grow up, please?

Don't grow up, please? Please?

And what do you do when you find that you're all alone, trapped in a sea of grown ups. Those who seem to know exactly what they will do. You may not have a clue. I don't either. But all you have to do is say yay, for you and all of the others who don't know what to do. Because remember, you are not alone."

Kenji stared at the paper. And stared longer. And reread it, then reread it once more.

"Hey Kenji! What's the hold up?" called out a rude female voice from inside the door next to Kenji, named Shikoku.

"Where's Eiji and Tsubaki? In fact, where is the guest of honor, while we're at it," called out a quiet and very polite voice, named Kinna.

"Don't worry, Shikoku, Kinna. I'm sure...everything is alright..." said a rather meek and hopeful male voice, even quieter the one before it. It belonged to Yuki, Shikoku's twin.

"Patience, children," said a manlier voice which was rather hopeless and weak, belonging to their father Kaito.

Kenji sighed once more.

"Are you alright, Kenji? You seem to be sighing a lot lately," said Kinna worriedly.

"Are you in love big brother?" yelled Shikoku rudely.

"Big brother...in love? No way..." said Yuki, now sounding quite surprised.

"It's rude to come up with random assumptions." This time a melancholic voice spoke. It belonged to Arisa. Kenji turned his head to the door in an instant and quirked an eyebrow. In came Arisa, her head down and her bangs covering her face, her long, waist length hair seemed even lower than usual. Next to her was Eiji, who was biting his lip and patting her back.

Something had happened. Something bad.

"Arisa-Chan...did-" Kenji knew this would sound stupid. "did something _bad_ happen?" Arisa looked up, her eyes were tear stained.

Apparently, something did happen because she charged up the stairs, presumably to her room. Eiji looked at the fleeing back of Arisa, an expression of what Kenji guessed to be sorry and slight fear on his face. Then he sighed, and looked up to Kenji with a smile on his face.

"I guess it'll be okay," he grinned, though it didn't look right. Kenji looked back from the stairs to Eiji guiltily. It was probably his fault that Arisa had charged upstairs...He bit his lip and turned back to Eiji.

"So...what exactly happened...to Arisa?" he asked, his brow furrowed. Eiji rubbed the back of his head, and looked off to the table near the door where all of their siblings, save for one Tsubaki, were all staring at him eagerly. Kenji's stomach did a flip.

Alex breathed in a large amount of air in her bedroom, staring at the ceiling with her blurry vision. Then she continued sobbing. She couldn't believe how pathetic she was, crying in front of her new family. She honestly did not want to cry, but somehow it had all exploded when she reached the outside of her house. About ten minutes ago she had challenged Kago Natsuki, the captain of the girl's tennis team to a match. Alex couldn't believe how much confidence she had had.

Now that she thought of it, she probably made a huge fool out of herself. Believing that she could actually play tennis when she had never once picked up a racket. Hoping that she could actually fight against the captain _and win_ when she had no idea what the rules of tennis were.

Sitting on her bed with her knees to her chest, taking a pause from crying, she looked over what her new family must've thought of her crying. Perhaps they now thought that she was a cry baby or perhaps very strange or they now had a bad opinion of her. She didn't like that. She resumed crying and didn't even reach for her tissues. Did she even have tissues though?

Alex ran across the room to her bag which, in the two weeks that she had been there, had not been unpacked. She searched through it and found that she had put some pretty strange things in there. But she paid no attention to them at the moment. The target was in her mind, and she was not giving up. Finally, she found her special edition, super rare Blueberry Fruitcake doll which she immediately put to her chest and squeezed it with all of her might. She still cried, but it made her feel a little better.

Just a little. Alex sat in the mess of stuff from her bag and stared at the chubby doll intently.

"Hey, Blue, I'm feeling sort of blue...ha...it's a pun. Anyways, help me!" she stared into Blueberry Fruitcake's large, bright purple marble like eyes and her midnight blue hair that was in dreadlocks, thanks to Jordan. Alex laughed at her childishness.

Did she actually believe that Blueberry Fruitcake would come to life and give some answers? But...maybe she could...

Alex sprang up from the mess and jumped into her bed, Blueberry Fruitcake in between her arm and her stomach. Laying her head onto her pillow, Alex stared at the ceiling and thought about her defeat.

Natsuki had been a really good tennis player, she admitted. She had been fair and not given her a handicap. That probably would've lowered Alex's pride a bit. She could say that she battled the tennis captain...

"It's not enough!" said Alex silently, noticing that she didn't at all feel happy or at ease at the thought. "I'm not great at tennis, and I didn't give it my all. Next time, I will! Next time..." Alex realized something.

Tennis...was actually fun! In defeat, she realized that life was not over. She could always challenge Natsuki again. And next time she would definitely win.

"Okay!" Alex stood up and stared at the mirror directly across from her where she saw her pale, tear stained face. She hated that look. It was not her! And her hair...her platinum blond hair was much too long. She didn't need it. "I will change!"

Glancing at the desk of school supplies and such on the left side of her bed, she searched around the top and found large, sharp purple scissors. Then she grinned and walked over to the mirror(4). Taking a large intake of breath, she carefully put her hands behind her head and snipped off a long piece of her hair near her neck. Then another, and another, until all of her hair went to her neck. It was sort of messy in the back but the front was a little long and neater than the rest. It didn't look too bad.

But then she grimaced and looked at all of her hair at her feet. She would have to clean all of it. _And_ her new family were probably gonna notice that her hair was like a foot shorter! Why didn't she think this through?

Meanwhile, walking home Yurizawa Yuma recalled the game about twenty minutes earlier, with her captain and the newbie, Tatsuya Arisa. She had told her that she had a forty percent chance of winning. She had lied. In fact, the exact percentage of Tatsuya Arisa-or in fact anyone who had never played tennis before-of winning against Kago Natsuki-even with about a year of experience-was 0.0004%. At most. And Yuma was guilty for installing false hope into Arisa. Because of the face Arisa had made when she lost, and Yuma had not forgotten it.

Her large blue eyes were wide, disappointed, and her mouth was dropped. Then she bit her lip. There were tears in the corners of her eyes. Yuma knew that somewhere it was her fault. For giving her hope that didn't and probably would never exist. It was her fault. Her fault.

Yuma sighed as she opened the door to her house.

"I'm home," she called out. Tatsuya Arisa would probably never stand a chance against Kago Natsuki, the best tennis player among the club. (5)1- Alex and me and Kenji don't know what _esquire_ means.

2-I made this poem! I made it because I was feeling depressed because everyone was growing up and it felt like I was the only one who was staying in the same place.

3- I used blankies because it seems more like what a little kid would say, rather than blankets.

4- Don't run with scissors! It's dangerous!

5- Yuma has a twin sister, but she's not there for some reason, even though she should have come with her from the tennis courts...


	8. 6 and a half I'm a loser

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana: Yay! I got my second review and I was so filled with happiness and joy that I started writing this! And nobodies been trying to enter the 'Guess why this chapter is named' challenge! TToTT

Sandy: Rana is sort of depressed so I stepped in to do the disclaimer! Rana does not own Pot, but she does own her characters and Turnbuckle town, as well as it's high school and the Lucky Lilies! Please enter the challenge(*whispers) or may the mighty Thor, god of thunder, smite you! Rana also doesn't own Thor, but how awesome would that be?

Rana: But, Ohohoho! Apparently, Kokoro no Kagami has been added to a community! My head has been inflated and no one can stop me from writing this chappie! However, I am _so _sorry that I haven't updated in a while...I didn't think it had been that long...with neglecting homework and all...

Anyways, I want to slowly get the people acquainted with some of the girl's regulars...Once again, I am sorry... T^T This chapter has been in the making for nearly a month since I'm not good at writing tennis scenes...

Chapter 6 ½-I'm a Loser

_Recap of Chapter 6-"Rough or smooth?" asked Natsuki. Alex wondered why Natsuki would be asking her what kind of rock she had always wanted at this time._

"_What?"_

"_Don't you know this much of tennis?" asked Natsuki. Alex gulped with her heart in her throat. This was the moment, she thought, where she would be discovered as an epic fail. Perhaps...she could lie?_

"_No, she doesn't."_

Alex McCarthy, ex-cheer leading captain and new foreign student to Seishun academy, gulped with a tingling feeling in her stomach.

"McCarthy Alex or Tatsuya Arisa. Age 14. Birthday is the 14th of October. She's an ex-cheerleader from Turnbuckle high school in the **Lucky Lilies** team of Idaho, North America. She quit for unknown reasons. Will be transferring to Seishun academy next week on a foreign exchange program. Has no tennis experience," said Yuma, closing her green notebook up on the high chair. Alex was extremely freaked out, and wondered how Yuma knew all of those things about her.

"H-hey, is Yuma a st-stalker?" asked Alex, knowing that if you asked a scary person about something directly they would answer with absolute honesty.

"No. I am merely a carrier of...hard to get data," she smiled down at Alex, who thought she saw a shadow on her face and couldn't help but notice that Yuma looked so much taller than her on the high chair. "There should be no reason for you to be afraid, Tatsuya Arisa."  
Alex gulped and nodded, her grip on the racket in front of her tightened. And Yuma saw this clearly on her high chair, and wasted no time in noting it in her little book that had 'Tatsuya Arisa' neatly scrawled on it's cover.

_'Tatsuya Arisa, obviously nervous before a match.'_

Then she went back to watching the fully experienced captain and the rookie. And just by that title, she knew the outcome of the game. Anyone would.

"Rough or smooth. A short tennis 'ritual', if you will, which determines who will serve first. It is similar to tossing a coin. It is played by the opponent choosing 'rough or smooth' proceeded by placing the racket on its head-the top-then spinning it. When it finishes spinning and falls, the owner of the racket looks at the bottom-underneath the gripping area where the brand initial is marked-and this determines who wins the spin," said Yuma, pretending to read out of her notebook. It was all a facade though.

She had memorized that long ago. Besides, with her eyes closed as her cousin Syusuke usually had them, she couldn't read very well.

"Alex wants to know, how do you know which is rough and which is smooth?" Why did Tatsuya speak like that? Was she trying to act cute or something? But the data part of Yuma's mind told her that Tatsuya was from America and probably was not fluent in Japanese.

But the other part of Yuma-the emotional part of her brain-said that Tatsuya was attention starved or something similar. And yet she smiled and unwillingly ripped her eyes away from her precious new data book.

"When the brand's initial is right side up it is smooth and vice versa," said Natsuki, fully knowing that Yuma was about to speak. That girl has absolutely no subtly, that's for sure, Yuma thought while laughing softly, not liking it when people observed her 'nonstrategic acts'. Or, in less strange terms, her real emotions, past her mask and blah blah blah.

Yuma looked downward at Natsuki and saw that the brown haired girl was kneeling-on one knee-next to her racket but at a far enough distance so as to not be hit. Then she spun her ruby red racket-from the brand of Wilson, as was noted by Yuma long ago-and stared at it intently as it continued. Just by this it was fairly obvious that she would spare no mercy upon Tatsuya.

However, the opponent didn't seem to notice this. Indeed, she seemed particularly jaunty.

And Yuma questioned this greatly and then looked over Tatsuya's apparel, which were long denim skinny jeans and a thick gray jacket which was probably not hers from the over sized appearance.

"Tatsuya," Yuma called, instantly getting the attention of the seemingly younger girl.

"Yes?" Alex looked up at her with a confused grin-this did not help her case of being attention starved for some reason.

"I've noticed that your clothes are not really...the best for playing tennis and that we are for some odd reason playing in the boys tennis courts...where _they_ are now watching..." Yuma and the other two girls in the court now all seemed to realize that there were boys and girls alike who were watching them from outside the steel gates with vivid interest.

"Who are they? Why do boys and girls both seem exciting?" Yuma raised an eyebrow and once again pondered whether the girl was attention starved or could not fully understand the grammar of their language.

"Do you mean 'Why do _they _seem _excited_'?" asked Yuma, definitely noting her own patronizing tone. It annoyed her to no end, and something, some tiny thing, in her brain blamed Tatsuya for being so...so childish. "Now, go get changed! I'll lead you to the girl's changing rooms." With that, Yuma bounded off her chair-instantly regretting it because she was afraid of heights and she was certain that she sprained her ankle.

"Oh, kipping-dndedjrnfiwnejfnjwedniwbsiuya!" And though her curse was intangible Yuma was certain that people understood that she had hurt herself and blushed. "Anyways..."

Quietly, Yuma lead Tatsuya-who was skipping for some reason-to the not so far away girl's tennis courts where girls in their uniforms-white T-shirts with either pink, yellow skirts and matching sleeves and the occasional shorts-were practicing with little effort. Some of them started whispering as Yuma passed by. There was a...68% chance that they were talking about the newly founded regular. The rumor that she had spread seemed to have moved awfully quickly.

Soon, Yuma and Tatsuya found the large green roofed and gray painted wooden shed.

"This place looks a lot like the boy's tennis courts," noted Tatsuya, staring up at the slanted roof of the changing rooms. Yuma smiled down at her, though it was now genuine and for a reason, too. Long ago, Yuma and her younger twin sister, Endou, had came to this school as first years. In order to not get lost and spurred on by Endou-this was when they had not yet argued and were still talking-Yuma learned everything about Seishun academy's geography and so she would not ever waste an opportunity like that to prove how much she knew.

"Well, in the building of Seishun academy these courts and the ones you were previously in were originally just one court. About ten years later a girl's tennis team had been suggested and due to the heavy expenses, the previous principal merely split the tennis court in half to make way for the tennis courts. The boys did not mind since there weren't many people who wished to join."

"It's a bit of a different story now..." said a quiet, monotone voice. Yuma recognized it instantly.

"Tatsuya Arisa, this is Tsukishimi Mitsuki. Tsukishimi Mitsuki," she gestured to a short girl, about Tatsuya's height but perhaps taller, with light chocolate brown eyes and blackish brown hair. She was wearing the jersey and shorts of a Seigaku regular but in an especially loose size. "this is Tatsuya Arisa."

Tsukishimi glanced at Tatsuya and smiled shyly.

"Uh...hi," Tsukishimi's eyes searched around awkwardly-there was an 89.98% chance that she was nervous and not good with new people-before her eyes landed on both Yuma and Tatsuya. "Well...I gotta teach some new recruits some...swings and stuff...I guess I'll see you both...later? Tomorrow? I dunno..." And she walked away into a nearby tennis court, looking back from the gate to the floor to Tatsuya and Yuma.

"Okay?" said Tatsuya, her head tilted.

"If you go into the closet that says 'Storage for Recruits' you should find different clothes on different shelves. Yellow is second and third years while pink is for first years." Yuma looked at Tatsuya and attempted to estimate her size...She was rather small and only slight bigger than a first year... "I infer that pink would be-"

"No," said Tatsuya strongly, her arms were crossed over her chest and her face held a sort of serious determination that looked sort of out of place. "Alex doesn't wore pink."

Yuma raised an eyebrow, wondering why this girl-who seemed to be the perky, flowery bunny type-hated pink or at least refused to wear it with a passion.

"Why?" Yuma half opened her eyelids, a sort of curiosity for new data overwhelming her gut. The data book in her mind opened, as she had left her other one on her seat.

"Because! Alex can't stand short skirts or pink! I hate it! Everyday, my squad would wear it and talk about it and put it on their lips and on paint it on their nail and put it on their backpack! Or...they would paint it all over me when Alex was a freshman in high school! When I took a nap on the-the bench they painted Alex with pink nail polish and stuff and it took Alex really long to get it off and Alex almost got dead by the smell! The smell were terrible!"

Yuma made a note to never introduce Tatsuya to pink in case of a nervous breakdown.

"Okay then. Grab a second year's uniform." Tatsuya nodded and vanished into the changing rooms, emerging ten minutes later in the yellow sleeved t-shirt and matching shirt. She looked pretty confident.

"Yes! Alex can do this!" A tiny, tiny brain cell within Yuma's mind snapped.  
"You know, you could say 'boku'(1) or 'watashi'(2) or 'Ore'(3) to talk about yourself instead of saying Alex all of the time," said Yuma, her eyes were half open and her hands were placed on her tilted hips.

"Really! Okay!" Tatsuya smiled widely. "'_I_' will!"(4)

Tatsuya ran into the changing rooms and, in less than five minutes, came out wearing the second year's tennis uniform. She was pouting.

"I don't like the skirt but I can deal with it!" she said, holding up her clenched fist to the sky.

Yuma smiled-well it widened, she was already smiling-and silently motioned for the shorter girl to follow her. In a couple of moments they reached the tennis courts where the people who were gathered around in a large clump parted like the red sea for Tatsuya and Yuma to pass.(5)

"It's them!" the voice of a freshman boy whispered, loud enough for all to hear in the silence.

"Yeah! Did you hear that the freshman had the guts to challenge the captain?"

"I heard that she has no tennis experience!" said one voice scandalously. "I heard that she's an American cheerleader."

"What's so bad about that?" They seemed to forget that everyone else was whispering.

"Shut up! You're talking too loudly!"

Tatsuya stopped mid-skip and turned to face the direction that the voices originated from.

"We can already hear you, you know. And I'm fifteen, and_ I'm not that short_!" said Tatsuya, a small smile on her face and a surprisingly cheerful tone in the way she spoke. It was rather frightening and seemed to have the same scary effect upon most of the crowd members.

"Good luck, Ares-Chan!" said a voice that stood out from all the rest(it was yelling and made most of the other people flinch.) Yuma looked back and saw Kikumaru waving in a rather grand way(with his entire arms soaring to and fro in the air.) It was ridiculous and made most people look at him like an alien but Yuma found herself jealous as she continued to the courts and saw Tatsuya wave back with rather cute words of excitement, no doubt to 'pump herself up' for the match.

And the reason that she was jealous was because Kikumaru was incredibly self confident, and she always wondered why. But, it wasn't a bad thing; No, not at all. In fact, that was exactly what she wanted to be like, what she had _always_ wanted to be like. A lot of the time she envied him, she thought as she climbed up on the referee's chair and looked down at Natsuki, who was impatiently patting her hip, her racket long forgotten on the ground.

"Tatsuya!" Natsuki roared, her fists clenched to her sides. She seemed pissed, in simplest terms. "Get over here and start this match _now_! It's you're serve so prepare yourself!" Yuma smiled, having learned to appreciate Natsuki's rare angry moments for as long as they lasted.

"Y-yes captain! Sorry..." Tatsuya raced inside of the court and fumbled with the door which Yuma had known would not close due to the rust that had piled up with the recent cold weather and rain. She didn't feel like saying any of this to Tatsuya though. It was much more fun to watch her scramble, and to wait for the guaranteed effect.

"Any day now, Tatsuya!" Tatsuya bowed down and apologized before running over behind her net, directly in front of Natsuki. "To the base line, Tatsuya!"

Tatsuya ran to the back and Yuma stared at her in slight surprise before reaching into her own pocket. "Tatsuya!" she called, gaining the girl's attention before tossing the bright green ball in her hand to her. "Here!"

Tatsuya caught it and stared at the small orb balanced in her palm for a moment before picking up her green racket from the ground.

"One set match! Tatsuya Arisa vs. Kago Natsuki! One game all!" Tatsuya held up her hand with the tennis ball to the sky for a moment before tossing it upwards where the sun would not blind her on the overcast day. However, Yuma could tell in an instant that Natsuki was dealing with an amateur who had never once served before. For one, her form was very plain, as though she was standing in wait of a bus, and her racket hand was not prepared to hit the ball until the very last moment. And it did.

But the flaw in her form was painfully obvious. The bottom half of the racket would hit the ball, causing it to weakly hit the net. And sure enough, to Yuma's calculations, the ball hit the net.

"Fault!" called Yuma, inwardly smirking. She had been right and had already made a training schedule for Tatsuya's serves in mind. Said girl was slouching and had a frown deep set in her face. She inhaled sharply before backing up and retrying the serve. This time, the racket hit slightly higher and managed to make it over the net, due to sheer luck. However, it hit in the doubles court.

"Out!" The grimace widened on Tatsuya's face. She let out another sharp breath before puffing out her cheeks. "Please serve now, Tatsuya." Tatsuya slapped her cheeks and made a 'poof' sound. There was now a bright smile on her face. Yuma raised an eyebrow on the smaller girls strange tactics and looked at Natsuki. She appeared to be thinking the same thing, but with a smile on her face.

There was something that Yuma never understood about Natsuki. She loved playing new opponents; facing the unknown. It was something that Yuma, who made sure to get data on her opponents, couldn't understand.

"Love-15!" called Yuma. Tatsuya had finally made a normal serve but Natsuki had quickly countered it. Tatsuya tried again, but Natsuki once again countered it. It went in a similar fashion to that until Tatsuya lost her service game. "Game Kago! One game to all!"

Natsuki smirked, as she always did when her service game came up. Yuma watched as she posed in her more unusual form with a small satisfied smile. She had taught Natsuki that form herself. It was a very special serving form that had a special purpose.

Right leg behind the other and her right elbow perked upward with the racket in hand below. Her left hand held the tennis ball in a loose grip before tossing it up high into the air before lightly tapping the ball with her racket. Or at least it seemed that way. Yuma would wait until Natsuki actually made the move to diagnose it's strength. Every serve was different, and Tatsuya was about to experience it's power.

When Natsuki hit it, it appeared to make very normal journey over the net but then a scenario begins.

1. The opponent chases the ball.

2. The ball comes in contact with the racket.

3. The ball begins to spin on the racket until it becomes so heavy-feeling that the opponent drops that racket.

However, Tatsuya held out a little longer with the balls spin. It was surprising considering her height but Yuma had suspected this. Just by looking at her, nobody would expect her now revealed arms to be as toned and thin yet muscular as they were. And, to the shock of most people within and outside of the court, Tatsuya managed to hit back the serve. It hit the net, but still left Natsuki in shock.

"Fault! Love-15!" Yuma now knew that Natsuki would not attempt the serve, her shock paralyzing her ability to use the move without being exceedingly careful. The rest of her service game was filled with regular serves and an occasional short rally that ended with Natsuki gaining the point.

And then, Yuma saw something that often happened with newbies in tennis. The signs of it were very subtle unless you looked closely. Tatsuya was smiling determinedly and had loosened the grip on her racket. It seemed that she had a newfound confidence since she had almost returned Natsuki's shot.

Yuma glanced at Natsuki, who smirked. _She_ had noticed too. Natsuki served a normal serve. Tatsuya returned it, but it went outside of the line. Tatsuya grimaced again and choked up the grip of her racket. Natsuki served near Tatsuya's feet. This time, it hit the net and Tatsuya breathed in sharply. It was beginning.

Though the opponent didn't know it, Natsuki would usually play a small game with them. A psychological game that focused on and exposed your weaknesses. For Tatsuya it would be her weak control and unpreparedness. It was somewhat sadistic to a first year but Natsuki had to do it for appearances sake, since people couldn't think the captain was a weakling who went easy on someone. Yuma knew this well.

Still, she did feel _some_ empathy for Tatsuya who had most likely just picked up a racket for the first time today. And this match did provide Yuma many opportunities to see the mistakes in Tatsuya's game.

"Game Kago! 2 games to love!"

For some time the game followed that pattern, with Natsuki scoring the majority of points and Tatsuya winning one or two here and there. The crowd remained silent throughout the game, sometimes speaking of the captain and how despicable it was for a "near pro to challenge a fresh newbie."

Soon enough(actually, 5 minutes later) Natsuki served and Tatsuya fell to the ground, panting, both knowing the outcome. Yuma had to give it the girl, her ability to reach the tennis ball in the different parts of the court and reach was pretty good(she could use it later)but it hadn't been good enough to win her the game.

"Game set and match! Kago, 6 games to love!" Tatsuya looked pretty pathetic at that moment, her support being her hands and knees and her long blond hair serving as a shroud to hide behind. After a moment she looked up and a weak smile was plastered on her face. Her eyes were closed but a bit of water was coming out of her closed lids. Her breathing was loud and she occasionally hiccuped.

Yuma's stomach felt a little uncomfortable and Natsuki seemed unmoved...but her eyes said otherwise.

"T-thanks for it game!" said Tatsuya, her smile faltering. Yuma wondered how Natsuki felt at this point. Both of them had seen this scenario many times and were still not used to the agony and dullness of their opponents eyes. The opponent never knew how much it hurt them personally.  
Their guilt had piled up quite a bit at this point. "It were...really fun..."

"Yeah. You were better than most newbies. I can see lots of potential in you," said Natsuki. Sometimes Yuma wondered how Natsuki could deal with the guilt of having crushed someone and could smile a moment afterwards. Perhaps she was used to it. Or perhaps she had to learn how to put on a straight face as the captain. Tezuka must've had it hard(either that or he just naturally doesn't smile.) "You'll be a great addition to the team!"

Yuma also wondered how, at the these times, Natsuki managed to say something encouraging and helpful.

"Th-thanks to the Natsuki captain!" Yuma shook her head because, sorry or not, she still could not deal with the American's terrible dialect. But then she stopped and saw Tatsuya start crying again, a frown was on her fair skinned face. "S-sorry..."

At that moment Kikumaru came into the court and helped Tatsuya to stand by pulling her left arm over his shoulder as his right arm supported her shoulders. She looked at him with a confused expression through the tears.

"Eiji-kun...?"

"Um...I'll just be taking her home now. Bye-bye, Natsu-Chan, Yu-Chan!" he waved at them with his free hand before turning around with some difficulty, him and Tatsuya completely uncoordinated in their footing.

"Ah~, how gentlemanly, Eiji-kun. Unless you have...other motives?" Natsuki smirked like she always did when she said something...sadistic to others.

Eiji whipped around with a pout on his face with Tatsuya looking as confused as ever. The tears had stopped by now, but looked as though they may have returned at any moment.  
"It's not like that, nya!" Yuma had once again noted that Natsuki always made an attempt to tease Kikumaru, the older brother of her childhood friend, everyday. And with that, Kikumaru and Tatsuya attempted to walk away, tripping and falling every which way.

Yuma climbed off of her large chair and stood next to Natsuki, who was standing in front of the net and was watching as Kikumaru and Tatsuya attempted to get out of the gate while still supporting each other with an amused smile on her face and a laugh in her eyes.

"So, do you really think she has potential?" asked Natsuki seriously, her arms crossed and the smile gone as soon as the two were out of earshot.

"Ah? So you were bluffing?"

"No, ah-but...Just answer the question, Yurizawa." Yuma smiled.

"Yes. Yes I do think she has some real potential," she watched as the crowd started to evaporate. "With cheer leading, her reach and and flexibility has reached a high level. But that alone, as you saw, cannot win a match."

"I see," Natsuki sighed. "So she's going to need a full course training then, huh?" Yuma nodded.

"Who do you suggest to teach her, Captain?" Natsuki tapped her lip to her mouth in thought.

"Well...we don't have any games for a while so preferably a regular."

"Someone who has already undergone the freshman experience and can reteach it?" asked Yuma, inwardly listing a number of candidates who so far fit the bill. The second years were probably out.

"Yes, someone who has patience. Tsubaki and Endou are out-no offense." Yuma glanced at Natsuki and smiled.

"None taken, Endou really is short tempered and in no position to be a teacher. And she's supposed to be my twin..." Yuma muttered, remembering when Endou yelled at a frog not too long ago for not hopping at her command.

"Well, so far the takes out Tsubaki-Chan(6), Tsukishimi, Yoshikuni, Elwood(7), and Endou-Chan(8)," recalled the captain, her foot tapping on the ground with an increasing rhythm.

"Which leaves only you and me," Yuma pointed out, her closed eyes now opening as she turned to her captain, a hint of a question in her voice.

"No," Natsuki shook her head. "we're the captain and vice-captain. We have to train the rest of the club."

"I see...there's always Hasegawa?" asked Yuma, wondering whether or not their manager would make a good coach.

"Nah, she's probably really busy with her managerial duties. We can't overlook the second years then."

"So...it's either Tsukishimi, Elwood or Yoshikuni?" asked Yuma, a slight feeling of dread coming over her stomach for some reason.

"Not Yoshikuni. She doesn't have the will to train someone." Natsuki ran her hands through her hair before her eyes widened as she turned to Yuma. It was obvious that she had thought of something good by the smile on her face. "I've got it!"

Yuma raised an eyebrow.

"What about coaching pairs? Tsukishimi and Elwood both know the basics and since their personalities are so different-even though they're friends-they'll keep each other in check!"

Yuma eyed her captain sceptically.

"But they _are_ friends. What if they get distracted? It's bound to happen."

"Whatever. So it's decided then?"

Yuma shrugged and glanced at Kikumaru and Tatsuya who were still trying to solve the gate equation.

"Sure, why not?" asked Yuma, seriously thinking about why the plan wouldn't work.

"Okay, so it's definite. Tatsuya Arisa will get special training from our infamous doubles pair?"

"Yeah, sure." Yuma watched, like clockwork, as Tatsuya and Kikumaru attempted to ram the gate at top speed and then fell very ungracefully.

Natsuki sighed as she motioned for Yuma to walk with her and help the two up. Tatsuya was holding back tears heavily as she nursed her shoulder-which was a slight red after inspected.

"Oh yeah," said Natsuki. "You still have to swap out those clothes with your other ones in the changing rooms."

"Y-y-yes!" said Tatsuya before running off to the girl's courts.

Yuma shook her head and tried to process the thought of Tatsuya Arisa, who had no tennis experience whatsoever, becoming a girl's regular. It was nearly unfathomable!

"Blasphemy!" she muttered to herself. "Pure blasphemy."(9)

The End for now!

1-Boku is a somewhat masculine way to say "I" but it can be used for females too.

2-Watashi is a feminine term for "I".

3-Ore is a masculine way to say "I" usually used with older or respectable men, I believe?

4-Alex used Boku

5-I had to use that term, I don't know why, but I just had to.

6-Tsubaki's last name is Kikumaru and you will be meeting her very soon. They call her by her first name because it would be confusing to call her by her last name.

7-Tsukishimi, Elwood and Yoshikuni all have different last names than anyone in the club so it is acceptable to call them as such.

8-Endou is Yuma's twin(did I already say that?)so they also call her by her first name so that it doesn't get too confusing.

9-They use this word a lot in my class and it means something outrageous within religion, I think? But I really like this word. It's fun to say!

(A/N) I always wanted to write (A/N)...Anyway! I promise that the next chapter will be out a lot sooner than this one...but I'm going to have start my summer homework soon so you never know.

**Chapter preview!**  
Eh? Alex's finally meeting the Kikumaru family! But who's the blond that doesn't seem to like her? Next time on MiruHarto(Mirror of the Heart/Kokoro no Kagami) For the Benefit of Mr. Kite! See you then!


	9. For the benefit of Mr Kite

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana: As I have said, I am so sorry about the wait. I started writing this the same day as my last upload(technically, since I updated 6 1/2 at 3 am) and this time I'm going back to Alex's third person pov. I missed it. I really did. By the way, the reason the Alex was crying in chapter seven was actually a combination of her disappointment and slamming into the gate. Also, along the way Kikumaru accidentally stepped on her foot. Yeah, ouch. For the sake of my sanity, this is chapter nine, not eight. I don't own PoT or the Beatles. I'm not sure about my custody over the Kikumaru siblings. They were seen and mentioned in episodes of Pot but not named and were only shown by the tops of their heads... I'm pretty sure I own Tsubaki though...or maybe not? She's based off of a couple of real people...and...I dunno. My head hurts. Enjoy.

Chapter 9-For the Benefit of Mr. Kite

Alex shook her head, like a wet dog trying to rid away water, thoroughly enjoying the newfound freedom of her much smaller head of hair. Since she was little she had always kept her hair long but now...now she could see the beautiful life lived by short haired people!(1) She was glad of her decision, she thought as she bounced up and down on her bed, the tennis incident that had happened a mere hour ago nearly a fading memory.

She would always have her hair short, forever and ever! Long live the short haired people!

"Larga vida a la gente de pelo corto!" she shouted, using the Spanish she had learned from eighth grade.

"Ares-Chan?" called a wary voice from the hallway. Alex figured that the person outside was afraid that she would cry again or something. Either that or they were afraid of her random Spanish outburst.

"Yes?" she called back, before skipping back to the door and smiling at the red head and the brunette in the hall. Both Kenji and Eiji had appeared to be waiting for her.

She inwardly laughed at the little resemblance between the two. Kenji was a bit taller and with glasses and a bit thinner, not that Eiji was fat or anything. She had learned that a while ago... Kenji's hair was sort of shinier too and in a different style. Eiji had bright red hair and had a more cute-cat look about him than the slightly serious Kenji. They, in fact, looked like two random people who happened to share the same eye color.

"Yo," greeted Kenji after a period of quiet. "we didn't...um...we thought that you-uh...never mind."

"It's okay! I'm no longer sad any longer!" she smiled at the two. Eiji perked up and Kenji looked at her in pleasant surprise.

"You're saying 'I' now! And..." he looked at her with a raised eyebrow for a moment. Eiji looked at his older brother in confusion. "Did you..." he glanced into her room as though whatever he would see in there would confirm his suspicion or whatever it was. "You cut you're hair by yourself, didn't you?"

He didn't seem too happy. Alex laughed nervously and glanced at Eiji multiple times for help. He didn't seem to notice her silent pleas, though. Instead, he seemed to be slightly bored? Either that or relaxed.

His arms were supporting the back of his head and he was whistling while staring at them. What was he whistling?

"Maybe...a little," said Alex, pouting. It wasn't a big deal, was it? Kenji rolled his eyes and Eiji smiled, no longer doing whatever he was doing moments ago in order to poke Kenji's pouting cheek.

"Aw! Ken-ken papa's mad!" Alex pondered on the strange nickname and then the cause of Kenji's apparent anger. Finding herself too confused she put away the topic into the dark crevices of her mind and looked to the two brothers who were having some sort of calm one sided argument, lead by Kenji.

"Is family's dinner still open?" asked Alex, breaking up the heated glances between Kenji and Eiji.

"Yeah. But it's around time for desert now." Kenji rubbed the back of his head and stared off somewhere to his left, away from Eiji.

"But I'm sure you can still get a meal, nya! Mama always saves food for people who can't come to dinner for later!(2)" He gave Alex a thumbs up and she copied his movements with a cheeky grin. Kenji rolled his eyes.

"Good grief, now there's two of them." Rather than anger, his grumble held a sort of warmness. His smile also betrayed his words.

"Geez! Ken-ken papa's so mean!" Eiji pouted, his fists balled up in front of his chest in a really adorable way. Alex shook her head and walked past the two quietly arguing brothers to the stairs. Why did she think that Eiji doing the same thing that she always did when frustrated was cute?

She shrugged it off with a small smile to herself and thought that Eiji's actions reminded her of a little kid and that little kids were cute.

Eventually, Alex stood at the door frame of the dining room and gazed upon the sitting members Kikumaru family around their large oval table, her heart thumping so hard in her chest that she was sure that they could hear it. The first thing that she noticed, though, was that all of the chairs were mismatched.

"Hello! Was good to see you all!" Alex bowed and hoped that she hadn't said anything embarrassing. She hadn't yet come to fully understand Japanese and knew that she messed up a lot, but this was pretty much the one time that it mattered. Really, really mattered.

And then, her heart nearly shattered when she heard someone _laugh._ Had she said something wrong or embarrassing? Did she get really lost in translation like earlier with the cat and the whipped cream? She could almost _die_...or cry. Whichever came first.

"I'm-I'm sorry," said a male voice. For some reason, it reminded Alex of Big Bear, strong and sort of masculine. "Please, Tatsuya-Chan, be seated." Looking up, the slightly nerve recked girl saw that it was the man at the far end of the table talking. Quickly, she took a seat at the opposite end.

Kenji and Eiji did also. Thankfully, their seats were the ones on either side of her so she didn't feel like she was among strangers. As it was, the entire table was staring at her with intrigue.

"Um...hi?" Her weak attempt at initiative seemed to spark the others intrigue a bit more. That or it surprised them.

"Hi, Arex-Chaaaaaan!" She'd recognize that happy, mature voice anywhere. It was Mrs. Karo from behind her, holding a plate with nearly clear plastic rapping over it. "Here's what we had at dinner. Desert should be ready later!" It was strange to hear Mrs. Karo speaking in perfect Japanese. Broken English had somehow fitted her.

"Hi, Mrs. Karo-saaaan!" said Alex happily, her entire lower arm swing to and fro like a metronome that had had lots of sugar. Even though metronomes couldn't eat...

The man at the head of the table laughed again. This time it was louder.

"Um...Yui? Why is she calling you Mrs. Karo?" he asked in between laughs. Despite his laughter, Alex felt her face heat up to the maximum, for some reason, and she looked towards Karo for the answer. She felt that she had been swindled for some reason.

Karo, in the meantime, was smiling shyly, her pouting cheeks a rosy hue, and her arms holding up the back of her head in a very Eiji-ish style.

"Eheheheh...well, you see...Arex-Chan is new and _nobody_ calls me by a nickname anymore..." she trailed off, her eyes staring at some random point on the floor.

"But why 'Karo'? What's that got to do with anything?" asked a girl on the side with black hair, like most of the Kikumarus and brown eyes like the man at the head of the table. Except hers were really cold and bored.

"Karube _was _my maidens name and so Karo was my nickname in my high school...so...Tada! It's not like I did anything wrong...I JUST WANTED TO HAVE A COOL NICKNAME AND BE YOUNG-ISH AGAIN! IS _THAT_ SO WRONG?" she screamed childishly, waving her arms about wildly, before storming out of the doorway behind Alex, leaving everyone blinking.

"Don't worry, that happens _a lot_," said the dark blue eyed boy next to the bored girl. He was taller than her by a lot but they looked about the same age. After saying that his face turned a pinkish-red color and his mouth turned into a frown that looked a little like a squiggly line. His hands cupped his mouth in an instant. "I'm sorry!" said his muffled, apologetic voice.

There was lots of laughter afterward, after the awkward staring at the boy who had said whatever he said.

"Ah!" The man at the end of the table clapped his hands together. "I'm sorry deary, you don't know our names." Alex assumed that the man was talking to her and nodded, feeling slightly strange about being called 'deary' by a man she just met five minutes earlier. "I am Kikumaru Kaito, the father of the household," he said with pride edging on his words. Alex randomly remembered that Kaito meant Kite.

"I'm Kikumaru Yuki," said the boy who sat next to his father, who had said that whatever had just happened happened 'a lot.' It felt as though he had stopped short and had more to say, but he instead slunk back in his chair.

"I'm Kikumaru Pikamu," said the frowning girl with brown eyes and black hair next to him. She was staring at the roof, and didn't look happy. "I'm his older twin." She pointed her pointer finger at Yuki. For some reason, it was surprising and yet made sense.

Next was a teenage girl, maybe Alex's age, more or less, with short red hair and dark blue eyes. She was in the spitting image of Eiji. As a girl.

"I'm Kikumaru Kinna"-Wasn't that the name of the oldest Kikumaru?-"and no matter how old I look, I'm only twenty-four." Alex's jaw dropped.

"T-twenty-four? I thought you were my age!" To her surprise and non-surprise(if that was a word) Kinna started chuckling behind her hand. The rest of the siblings looked a little scared for some reason.

Kinna used her free hand to apparently wave away Alex's comment.

"Oh, you flatter me, Tatsuya-san! But," she suddenly stopped and looked at Alex, completely serious. "don't think that flattery will win over my respect. It _will_ take a lot more than that."

'Kinna: Bipolar,' she mentally noted, her eyes now bouncing to the girl across from Kinna, a blond with bored hazel green eyes. She looked nothing like the other Kikumarus, her hair and eyes coloring being one thing but her face being a slight pinkish color while the other had light skin, and her cheek bones being low while the others were high. She laughed a little as she stared at her cellphone.

"I'm Tsubaki. Feel free to call me Kikumaru," she said offhandedly, giving Alex a quick side-glance before going back to doing something with her cellphone.

"But, don't you mean feel free to-"

"I said what I said," she shrugged.

'Tsubaki: Doesn't seem to like me...'

"Anyway," said Mr. Kaito, seeming to break the awkward silence without knowing it. "with you being stuck in that room of yours for two weeks we felt that we hadn't gotten to know you much, so that's why we brought everyone together. I suppose you could say it's for everyone's benefit-"

"Wait a moment," said Kenji, his eyes serious, interrupting his father without hesitation. Alex suddenly had a newfound respect for him. "You said that you wanted her to get to know everyone but you completely forgot about two very important people. Three, if you count your busy son-in-law."

That was when he scooted out of his chair and disappeared out of the doorway. He was gone for a while. Just before it seemed that he had officially stormed off, he came back into the room with two children in tow. Both were holding onto his hands and staring around innocently and confused. Both had the same dark blue eyes but one, who was a slightly shorter girl, has bright red hair and the other, a slightly taller boy, had black hair. They both looked to be about five.

"More siblings for Kikumaru family?" she asked, staring at Kenji for an answer. All of a sudden, she felt strangely at peace and much less tense in the presence of children.

"No, this is Suzu-" he raised the hand of the red haired girl who smiled at him curiously. He seemed oddly indifferent to this-"She's Kinna's daughter, and this is _my_ son, Masato." The raven haired boy sent Alex a toothy grin.

'Oh my gosh, KENJI DOESN'T LOOK OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE A FIVE YEAR OLD!' Alex contained her surprise with difficulty. She was sure that it had shown on her face, though.

"Hi!" Alex waved to the small children, happy to see them. There was a reason to it, not that she didn't like them, which was definitely not the case. Since she was little, Alex had for some reason felt at peace kids her age, which was five or people who acted childish. Even when she got older the fondness did not fade. "I'm Arisa!"

Alex had finally come to realize that most people preferred her Japanese name.

"Hello, Arisa!" both children bowed, still holding onto Kenji's hands. They wasted no time in walking back to wherever they were before. Kenji returned to his place at the table next Alex, who pretended not to notice and started eating the food that had been served to her. She had no idea what it was(it seemed to contain noodles)but it was pretty good.

"DESERT IS READY, NYA!" called Mrs. Karo(or Yui)erupting out of another door with a large tray of cake in her hands. It was pink, unfortunately, but had white, thick, creamy frosting on top with three strawberries! It wasn't until Mrs. Karo had haphazardly thrown the cake onto the table(and it luckily survived)that the inscription in some sort of flavoring or frosting could be read. It was in Japanese so it was impossible for Alex to read, though.

"Kenji," Alex whispered while Kaito inquired about Mrs. Karo's whereabouts for the past twenty minutes. Kenji sent a curious glance at Alex. "What's it cake the say?" Kenji glanced at the cake.

"'We, the Kikumaru family, wish you a warm welcome.' There's an exclamation point at the end, but I don't want to yell," he whispered back informatively. It was really lucky that Alex had him around, who could speak English and translate stuff for her.

"Dig in!" announced Mrs. Karo after her discussion with Kaito. Guiltily, Alex glanced back and forth from her meal and the cake. Would it be right to leave the food and go to the cake? Would the meal feel betrayed? But, wouldn't the cake also feel left out? She could always go back and forth but that would ruin the spicy flavoring of the meal and the most likely sweet flavoring of the cake.

"What're you doing, Ares-Chan?" asked Eiji, surveying Alex with a cheery smile. There was a bit of frosting on his cheek. It sort of enhanced the cute cat look that he had.

Alex wondered what she was doing herself, for a moment, and then she remembered her inner argument.

"Uh..." Should she have told Eiji of her slightly weird predicament? She decided that she trusted him enough for it. "I can't decide whether to eat the cake or keep on eating my meal." There, she admitted it.

"Why? Just go for the cake, it'll feel lonely if you don't eat it, Ares-Chan! The meal's had it's time with you!" he said, his smile turning brighter. He...was awesome! Alex hadn't ever met someone who shared the same ideals as food as her, plus he solved her problem. If they weren't sitting and eating, she might have hugged him.

"Thank you, Eiji-kun!" she said, grinning widely at him. He grinned back.

"Aw~! The lovebirds had a little moment," said Pikamu in a mock baby voice. The whole table giggled, except for Yuki and Kinna who had the decency to chuckle behind their hands. Though Mrs. Karo seemed confused and Tsubaki seemed angry.

Alex thought a fire had ignited within her head and Eiji had a small fire of his own in his cheeks. Without hesitation, Alex started on her cake and attempted to use her bangs as a shroud for her most likely red cheeks.

"Jeez! That's so mean, Pika-tan!" Eiji pouted.

What felt like an hour later(but may have been an hour and a half)dinner was over and everyone picked up their now frosting filled plates and loaded them into the dish washer. Alex observed them first, though, never having seen a dishwasher before. Apparently, during the dish-washing you're supposed to fill the dishwasher with some sort of tiny soap thingy and watch it as it happens-on your knees-while chanting 'Oohta, dahta washa!'(3) Mrs. Karo did it, as weird as it looked, and had a smile on her face the entire time.

As she walked back to her room with Yuki and Shikoku and Tsubaki who had their rooms near her own, she smiled the whole way and sung her own version of 'Oohta, dahta washa!' There, of course, was a reason. She had felt really happy after being introduced to the Kikumaru family. It felt like she was no longer, if a little, an outcast living in someone else's home. Eventually, she knew that she would indefinitely feel like a part of the Kikumaru family. Even if it took a whole year she would try her best. Except...she only had four months in Japan...she would have to feel like a part of the house by then...

The End for now!

1- Yeah...this is exactly how I felt when I got my hair cut a few years back...It was amazing. I cut off like fifteen inches.

2- Isn't it just so cute imaging Eiji saying Mama?

3- I don't know what 'Oohta, dahta washa' means. I mused to myself that it might means 'Ooh that washer!' Maybe, but I don't really know. If anyone knows, please say something! XD

(A/N) Yay! I got to write (A/N) again! Any who, I'll probably be working on this all week while I'm zip lining in an island that's far away from my home! CATALINA! It's off the coast of where I live! I don't want to go snorkeling though. I promised myself to never go snorkeling after I did when I went snorkeling on a class I trip and I almost drowned like so many times and it took forever to put on a scuba suit! I know, not a lot to complain about...

**Chapter Preview!**

Finally! It's Alex's first day of school! Who's her extremely quiet seat mate? Can she possibly make her speak! Next time on MiraHeru(I changed it to the _real_ version) Fool on a hill! See you then!


	10. The Fool on the hill

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana- Hey-hi! It's RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAANAAA! I recently learned how to roll my 'R's! LONG TIME NO SEE, HUH? If I go slow, I give anyone permission to hit me, shoot me with an arrow, or anything that they can think of!

Sandy- That's really stupid, idiot. Why would you purposefully try to sabotage yourself? Not that I'm complaining! I'm entering the 'permission to destroy you' thingy too! *Pulls out water gun with mysterious green bubbles coming out of it. _Say hello to my little friend!_

Rana- _NOOOO! _Inui Juice! I don't own Scar Face, the Beatles, Tootsie Rolls, Shugo Chara, Ghost Busters or Prince of tennis! And what the heck happened to Sandy?

Trivia: Did you know that the name was chosen randomly, since they were the only Japanese words I knew? It turns out that they sort of made sense. A MIRACLE! KISEKI! (Means Miracle)

Sandy- Please review! That's what makes Rana write! **DO IT BEFORE I GET HER**, MUAHAHAHA! Thanks, XxMichyBabyxX, for the review! I really like the pen name!

Chapter 10: Fool on the hill

Walking arm in arm with Kikumaru, Alex searched around for the main office. Tsubaki walked ahead with some distance with many chattering people between them. Alex still got the feeling that Tsubaki didn't like her much.

Along the way, Alex acquainted herself with her new surroundings. There were a couple of high gray colored buildings on the campus but not many. Other than that, there wasn't much to the school. It looked impressive from outside of the gates though. The many talking people made it hard for Alex to pay attention to anything though, her mind aching from the loud laughter and such. A part of her wished that they would go away or be quiet or spontaneously combust. Not that she wanted them to die, she just wanted to see it happen, but not to an animal. It was probably a form of animal cruelty and Alex really liked animals and wanted to be a zoo keeper one day. And then bam! Her head smacked onto something like a really smooth rock and the headache increased. She sent a glare up at Eiji who glanced at her with a sheepish smile. Wasn't he supposed to be guiding her with their arms linked and all?

"Sorry...but we're here!" True to his words, in front of them was a door. Alex couldn't read it though, still not yet very adept at reading Kanji.

"Well...that's good-is my forehead bleeding?" she felt a liquid on her forehead. It wasn't good, she could tell. What if her mind suddenly combusted because of an infection on the door, or if it the wound was open too long and she bled to death or something worse happened? Her mind flooded with the possibilities that Jordan had told her over the phone weeks before she came to Japan. All of them were more gruesome then the next. Whatever Eiji had said beside her was totally lost.

"Ares-Chan?" Alex snapped out of the daze once she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she found that it was Eiji's hand. Could he have been...comforting her? He really was nice! "It's just paint."

"Oh..." she couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. Since about a week ago she had gained a crush on Eiji and had secretly hoped that he may have liked her back. It was a little hope and pretty impossible but stranger has happened. She was weird and random and not really pretty or cute at all, but...still. Blinking, she stepped back and made a sound that was a lot like a squawk of a chicken. Eiji's face was right in front of hers! "Okay then!" she spun around to face the door.

After wiping off the mint green paint on her forehead with her sleeve, which she instantly regretted when her shirt became stained, she opened the door to the office. Her hand moved to Eiji's hand and squeezed. After getting her schedule, there would be no turning back. Inside of the office was a sour looking female with bright green, purple and blond hair and bored beetle black eyes(1). She glanced at Alex for a moment before waving her closer. Eiji, of course, followed her in.

"Welcome to Seishun Academy, one of the most famous schools in the Kantou region. What is your school related request?" The woman sounded extremely uninterested in what she was saying. It was almost rehearsed, actually. Alex fidgeted for a moment before glancing at Eiji for help. He was staring at the ground and rocking back and forth.

"I'm McCarthy Alex," The girl at the desk looked at her blankly. "Tatsuya Arisa?" The girl's eyes widened slightly, perhaps a nearly unnoticeable centimeter.

"Ah, right. One of the foreign transfer students. Here's your information and stuff," she slowly edged a thin manila folder full of paper towards the two students with the tips of her fingers. "In there is your schedule, your student id, and your papers."

The lady looked at something on her desk and used an orange mechanical pencil to write something on a yellow sticky note. Alex stared at the sticky note being handed to her, unable to read what was being written upside down.

"I think you're supposed to take it, Ares-Chan," whispered Eiji from beside her. He looked scared for some reason, as though the slightest tremor in his voice would activate some robot that might have killed him and everyone he loved(2). Alex secretly hoped he didn't want her to die. Shaking her head, she took the sticky note. It was, thank heavens, in English. It said 'Locker 22, floor three.'

"Thanks," said Alex, thanking the girl with a smile before almost walking away. Wondering why she _almost_ got away?

"Hey, kid!" On top of the emo-lady's desk were to large dictionary sized books with faded leather coverings. Where had they come from? "You forgot these. They're your translators."

The rather short girl went up and inspected the two books. Both were in English. One said 'To translate in English to Japanese translator' and the other said 'Kanji for dummies.'

'Kanji for dummies' certainly seemed useful, but the translator book was unnecessary. She was already quite good at speaking Japanese.

"Uh...I don't think I need this one," she pushed back the translator. The emo-lady looked up at Alex, her purple and green high lights bouncing with her blond hair, and gave her a glare that said that she wasn't taking back the translator.

"Come on kid, that book has to go all the way to the _other side of the academy, _on the fifth floor for God's sake! I am _not_ going to take it back all the way over there," she finished calmly, her arms crossed. The pose wasn't intimidating but had it's own fierceness to it. She glanced at Eiji, then the white walls and then the white walls of the room for advice; none of them were helpful. Sighing, she attempted to pick up the book.

"Whoa!" The full weight of the book slipped and dropped onto the floor like an elephant off of an Olympic diving board. Boom! The book slammed onto the floor and dust erupted out of the pages like volcano smoke. It stayed suspended in the air before evaporating in the air. "That's...kinda scary."

"You bet'cha," said the emo-lady with a sarcastic wink in her direction. Eiji jumped.

The full weight of the book was extremely heavy and so was the second book. It was like picking up her 95 pound little sister, Rita, and trying to carry her around the school and look for her class, or like anything heavy. Its fine at first but eventually your arms got tired and the edges(in the other case, her sisters shoes and elbows)started to stab.

"Ei-Eiji-kun!" The edge of one of the books started to choke her. "Please! H-help me! I'm gonna _die!_" Sure, maybe she exaggerating a bit, but if the book-choke went on longer, she probably would have been cut or bruised or been given a very serious red mark.

"Okay!" he took the book with seemed ease and smiled down at her. "That better?"

"Yup!" Something suddenly occurred to her like a red light alerting spies of something important. "Where's Tsubaki-Chan?" After short inspection she found no trace of her. In fact, looking back Alex couldn't remember Tsubaki in the office or anywhere near them when they entered the office.

Eiji shrugged, pushing up his books. "I think she went to class with her friends already, Ares-Chan." He still looked curious himself, though.

Alex pouted her cheeks and stopped dead in her tracks. Up ahead were stairs. She couldn't handle stairs with her heavy book, bag full of files and her books. Okay, so maybe she _could_ but it seemed very difficult. But she was an ex-cheer leading captain _and _on the tennis team. She would do it for pride and _she would_ succeed. Though it _did _suck that Eiji had somehow gotten up the stairs and was walking to the next set while she was in her thoughts.

"Okay! I'm _so_ doing this!" Alex backed up, giving her enough distance for the no doubt greatest sprint she would _ever _attempt. Those stairs didn't know what they had coming! "ALEX-CHAN..." She stomped her feet and ran them through the sand that was the smooth floor. She was the bull and the stairs were the matador that dared challenge her with her mighty horns. "WILL CRUSH YOU!"

She ran, and ran as fast as she could and(much)sooner than expected came the stairs. She wanted to run up them, that's what she was supposed to do. That's what she planned...but she couldn't. Improvisation was the only thing Alex could do...so she jumped! She jumped high and high. Maybe she would hit her head on the roof!

Her eyes were closed though, so she didn't actually see how high she went, but she clutched her heavy, heavy book in her arms. If there was one thing she knew, though, it was that the book was no doubt weighing her down and she soon landed. She looked around.

Way, way down was the stairs and on the next staircase was Eiji's back. She...did it.

"Yeah! I did it!" Eiji looked down at her, an eyebrow cocked.

"Are you coming, Ares-Chan?" he asked. 'And the world will never know...'(3)

Alex sighed, her chest hurting. Her sore arms pulled up the books and she sighed with every step she took. Suddenly, it seemed like a good idea to pace her steps to make them sounds like a song. It was an extremely lame song, but she was stopped anyway since the stairs, similar to earlier, stopped earlier than expected.

All around were door with signs above them with similar numbers to that of the class schedule. That probably meant that homeroom would have been nearby. Something in Alex's stomach grumbled in a bad way. Had she been nervous? Probably not...she hadn't started burping yet...and then she burped. It was quiet but she still said excuse me to no one in particular. Eiji had entered a room nearby at just that moment so it was pretty convenient and awesome, especially since they both apparently had the same homeroom class-thingy together. She was glad that she would have someone she knew somewhere in her desk area.

That thought inspired another. What was her desk going to be like? Was it one large chair and desk or separate? Could there have been another type of desk that she didn't know about? Was the teacher going to have his own desk? The teacher...could he have been nice? Perhaps he or she was Kenji's half twin!

All of a sudden she felt better. Much better.

For some diluted, demented reason, and the third time today the important object, in this case the door, came up closer than she expected. There were only two things to do in that situation. One, run away to California using her parent's credit card or two, go for broke, take a chance and jump into her new future. She didn't have her parents credit card so she charged straight at the door, her posture straight. She tried her best to strut but there was absolutely no chance that it didn't look silly, especially with the book and stuff in her arms. The door opened and she walked straight forward to a middle aged man who seemed to be the teacher.

She opened her mouth, took in a deep breath of air and prepared to say...well, nothing. She forgot to plan a 'cool and spicy' speech, as she had planned to do.(4) Instead of being embarrassed and feeling sorry for herself she looked up at the teacher.

"What do I do know, Mr. Teacher sir?" She looked up at him, his blank expression and narrow eyes creeping the heck out of her. His hair was a really pretty pepper color though.

"That's Mr. Kazehana to you," he peered down at her. It was kind of creepy and intimidating. "Now, you introduce your self to the class since they didn't get to know you at the beginning."

He ushered her to the middle of the front of the classroom, right next to the large black chalkboard. Curious, evil eyes greeted her. It was really, really scary. Alex hadn't been in front of a crowd in some time, having been along for about two weeks in her room at the Kikumarus, and being ignored for a month at her own home.

"I'm McCarthy Alex from Turnbuckle high school in America. I'm coming here to-I mean from-America. I like the color blue, horses, and Ravens. I hate bunnies, pink and cheerleaders 'cause they're all creepy(5)," she said casually. She honestly didn't care if she offended a cheerleader. Her whole team put her in pink clothes, dyed her hair pink and painted her skin pink with nail polish and laughed at her all day. She couldn't bath in nail polish remover since it was apparently toxic so she had to wait for it to peel off. Her skin was never the same... She grinned at the mass amount of students in their desks. "It's nice to meet you guys!" She started walking but an old man's arm blocked her and came very close to karate chopping off her nose as it came down.

She looked up and saw the teacher guy looking down at her. What was his name again? Hanakusa? It had something to do with flowers...(6)

"No, not yet, Ms. Tatsuya. _You_ have to answer some questions." His tone was like that of an annoyed adult who had to talk to a very small child. It was annoying to the max. More annoying than cheerleaders and bunnies.

'Oh my gosh, pink cheerleader bunnies...NOOO!' A small and very noticeable chill went through her spine. She knew it was noticeable when people were looking at her weird.

Alex looked towards all of the people and noticed that every time she did so her skirt did a sort of twirl that she saw in movies. It was actually sort of fun to look at. Swish swish swish...

"So," the teacher guy clapped his hands and eyed his students with his extremely dark eyes. "Let's answer some questions! Any questions..." A couple of students raised their hands. "Yes, you!"

He pointed to some random student who lowered his hand.

"Yeah, are like, all Americans blond? Do they have blue eyes too? 'Cause I saw in some anime special that they did," he said. Alex knew that she could answer this with ease.

"Nope. Actually I'm not even really blond. I dye my hair!" she picked up some of her hair for no reason at all. "I'm a brunette!"

There was a couple of 'oohs' and 'ahhs'. Weirdly, a couple of people clapped.

"But you didn't answer my question..."

"Next person!" said the flower teacher guy. It was sorta rude how he interrupted the other guy though. Alex was actually gonna answer the question too...

"Okay, so, yeah!"

'Oh no, a prep!' thought Alex, countless memories from cheer-leading popping up like...something that pops really fast.

"So, like, anyway...Where exactly does it allow in your Nation for you to make one of our classmates carry your books for you? I mean, that is so~ lame for you to just force something on someone like that!" For a moment Alex thought that the girl was completely insanio in the brainio but she then realized that the girl was talking about Eiji carrying her book. What the heck did she know? She didn't 'force' him to do anything!

"It's called chivalry on mens part and the kindness to help someone who's about to suffocate under his or hers books." It sounded a bit crude but she still smiled at her own blunt comment. But had she forced him? She couldn't quite remember, actually. She mussed with her short, short dirty blond hair nervously for some reason and looked at all of the people for the next question.

Among the crowd, in the back, was a gray haired girl with glasses that apparently felt that a notebook was more important than the transfer student. Said transfer student wasn't mad, in the least, but her hair was unconsciously(and painfully) tugged.

"Ms. Tatsuya?" With a gasp, her attention returned to the teacher and a cold shiver went through her spine. Was she embarrassed? She couldn't quite tell. Randomly, quite randomly, the Ghost Buster's theme song was stuck inside of the deep crevices of her mind. "Ms. Tatsuya?"

"Yes!" she looked back at Mr. Flower teacher and then randomly chose a student with their had up.

"Are you-"

"Okay, never mind," he clapped his hands together. "Since your our special transfer student you may choose your seat." Apparently it was a big deal since everyone looked pretty amazed. After a very brief moment of silence tons of people were raising their hands and trying to convince her to sit with them with friendly calls. The wanted exchange student smiled, her heart filling up with a sort of strange joy. She was wanted by tons of people! She was that much closer to her dream of being an actress or something else famous!

But, even so, the girl in the back intrigued her with her seemingly shy and/or cold exterior. Luckily, next to the girl was an empty seat.

"I'll sit there," she decidedly firmly, pointing to the seat next to the gray haired girl.

There was a sort of collective group gasp from the girls in the rooms. The boys seemed indifferent, which was curious enough without the one girl that looked ready to bite off Alex's head. Wait...why did that girl want to bite off her head in the first place? The world will never know...

"Okay then,"

Alex walked to her seat and someones hand brushed against her skirt pocket, which was incredibly creepy. But then it happened again and again and again. By the time she reached her desk her pocket, for some reason, felt like it weighed at least two or three pounds. Without looking, she shoved her hand in her pocket and found wads and wads of paper. Her eyes plastered on her teacher, she shoved the papers into the opening of the desk.  
There was a tiny skidding sound on her desk. She looked around, both to see who sent and to know if anyone was watching while she wasn't looking at the teacher. No one was. She opened the neatly folded English written note on her desk, the cause of the skidding sound.

_If I were you, Tatsuya-san, I would read the notes._

Could it have been a threat? She looked around again for the note passer with no luck.

'Why would someone send me this note...? The world may never know-I have to stop thinking that phrase! Who ya gonna call? Ghost busters! What the heck is wrong with me?'

Finally, she sighed and decided to actually pay attention to Mr. Flower teacher and take notes. He was talking about some guy called General Califigo De Vaillant who had discovered the Treyford islands, one of the most cultural places within Europe. Apparently, it was named after lady Francine Treyford, the daughter of the rich business owner Detforju Treyford, who was running away with her lover Sebastien D'Rodier, a crewman on De Vaillant's ship. It was sort of interesting-oh what the heck!

She looked back to the note and wrote as fast as she could while Mr. Flower teacher was captivated by his own lesson.

_What do you mean?_

Aha! Alex knew that by writing a response the original note passer would look up and there she was! Her gray haired neighbor!

Cunningly, she moved her hand across her desk in a sweeping motion and the(folded)note landed onto the next girl's desk. Or that was the plan, at least. Instead, she missed by a few inches and watched as the note sunk lamely onto the floor, not far from her own desk. The gray haired girl sighed, pushed up her glasses, and hunched over to pick up the note.

Her eyes scanned over it once before she ripped out a small, neat piece of paper from a notebook. She wrote something in it, then erased it and rewrote it. After seeming to be content with whatever she wrote, she casually flicked it onto Alex's desk, her eyes on Mr. Flower teacher.

'Amazing!' She glanced at the folded paper and opened it without hesitance.

_Because our classmates will be pissed if you don't. I'm Matsumoto Konomi, by the way. Sorry if my English sucks, I'm pretty new to it._

Did...could Alex have had a new friend? That was awesome!

Quickly, she thought and then scribbled on the note.

_Your English is fine! And-_

"Now see here students!" Mr. Flower teacher suddenly announced loudly, right next to Alex's desk. "Look at this example of a student!" Oh my gosh he was pointing at her note. "Taking notes during class!"

"No, it's not-what?" Oh, she shouldn't have said anything in the first place then...

"And in English too so she could always understand it! That's our transfer student!" Scattered claps quietly sounded off about the classroom.

'Talk about a freaking scare...' Whoa, she cursed inwardly. She never did that...Was it really a notable curse though? Hm...She would have something to think about...Wait, no! She couldn't get lost in her thoughts again!

Konomi-Chan gave a very audible sigh of relief next to her and laughed a little, her hand over her heart. It was really cute! Mr. Flowery guy went back to the front of the class, talking about Alex's apparent greatness, and then back to the subject of the Three Treyford islands of La Sierra cove and how the economy was a financial roller coaster and how they managed to bring it back.

Apparently, Konomi-Chan became immersed in Mr. Flower Teacher's lecture and seemed no longer interested in the crime of note passing, sadly. Alex pouted.

Wait. Why was she disappointed? She pushed it away from her mind and looked to Mr. Flower Teacher who started to talk about some other random subject.

~Mira-Heru~

Once class finished for lunch the students tended to leave the room at an extremely fast pace. Alex learned that the hard way when her feet had gotten run over way too many times to count.

"Ow!" Her hand got run over too...

"N-need some help?" asked Konomi-Chan. Her voice was quiet and she looked slightly out of breath. Her long silvery-gray hair was askew. A hand was withdrawn from her pocket and offered to Alex.

"Thanks!" She grabbed the hand and pulled herself up with surprising ease. "I need to get my lunch out of my locker, any chance you know where it is?" Konomi looked over the post-it that was handed to her and nodded.

"Yeah, it's at the other side of the school though," Konomi-Chan looked doubtful, before looking at Alex with a curious expression on her face. And suddenly it occurred to her how boyish Konomi-Chan looked. She may have been prettier without her glasses though. "Fine. I think I can make it there before lunch and before my stomach growls enough to kill me."

Alex giggled.

"Thanks!" And so they ventured out of the classroom and walked for some time until they reached a staircase. Along the way, Alex realized how quiet Konomi-chan was. Her eyes were really _out there_ and her head seemed to be in the clouds. Suddenly, a really stupid grin came onto her face for a mere second before disappearing. What had she been thinking of...? It was a curious question with the only answer available to Konomi-Chan. Still, no matter how easy it was, Alex didn't feel like asking her.

A little good thought was a little good thought and it was nobody's business but the thinker. That was what her mother told. Alex missed her mother...

"We're almost there," Konomi stopped and stood still next to a stair case wall going upward, which tower over her. "But this is where I can go no further. There," She pointed somewhere behind there staircase that was not visible to them. "is dangerous territory." She said nothing else and sat down Indian style in the shadow of the staircase, not at all hidden by the sun light streaming through the windows opposite her.

Alex nodded solemnly, though she didn't get why it was all serious, and walked on, noticing that the locker numbers displayed in small white print over the green lockers were getting closer to the number on the post-it.

'Number 20034, 20040...20056! I'm here!' She grinned at her locker, which had been filled in by Tsubaki earlier on in the day. What had the combination been, she wondered as she stared at the faded mint locker inches away from her face. She looked at the post-it once again.

There was nothing written on it. Perhaps the receptionist lady forgot...? Maybe she was supposed to make it up. It was worth a shot. It probably should have been something she could've remembered well. Her birthday! 10-14-...Maybe her lucky number?...32!

She coded it-or whatever-in and then did it again. It worked! Wait, how did Tsubaki open it?

Alex looked around and found her books and lunch box poorly concealed by a blue bandanna and some tissues. Tsubaki really didn't like her, did she? She looked at her locker, empty, and picked up her large books and stuffed them in haphazardly. They would be organized later.

On the ground and then in her arms was her lunch contained in a baby blue handkerchief with, ugh, _bunnies_ on them. _Bunnies_ for God's sake! Did everyone just assume that she loved them or something? She really didn't. She hated them with a passion. Why? Because they were creepy with their...little albino ways. That wasn't why, though it was a good, valid point. The real reason was that when she was little on one fine Easter day, her mom decided to leave her in a small bunny cage and go somewhere else. It turned out that taking a nap in a bunny cage was not good because they will crowd around you, sleep on you, and go to the bathroom on you and in your hair. Some bit her.

It was terrible. She had to take a bath with all of that stuff, three times until the _smell _went away. It took five consecutive baths to be cleansed all the way. And that was why she hated bunnies, she concluded.

"Hey! Tatsuya-sempai!" Alex turned her back to the approaching stairwell and looked behind her shoulder where two girls, probably second years, were standing.

"Is it true that you were brave enough to stand up to _The Frump_ during class and tell her not to talk to you?" asked one girl excitedly while the other nodded.

"Um, what? I really don't know what you're talking about." And she really didn't. What the heck was a frump? "What's a _frump_?"

"You _don't_ know yet?" asked the other incredulously. "It's just the largest rumor of the school!"

"You see," started the other with a sudden ominous voice. "ten years ago a girl was discovered below the school and they brought her up here and she's been going to school as a third year ever since, sempai, and she's really cold and mean towards everyone. She automatically yells at people for the littlest fault and she's probably insane too."

"Who's _The Frump_?" asked Alex finally, a point at the side of her head pricking slightly.

"Matsumoto Konomi-san, of course." And then Alex was blank. For the first time in a while, her mind was completely empty. It was a rather strange feeling.

"Konomi-Chan?" Her mouth was speaking before she could think the words out. "She's not cold or mean at all." It was the truth. That was all she could think. And suddenly she was angry. "It's really mean of you guys."

"What?" asked one of the girls stupidly. The other had an equally stupid expression on her face. Still, any normal human being knew not to start rumors, right?

"It's not right to spread rumors. Not about someone you don't know. Did you even take that time to get to know her? She's really nice and she's my friend. It's not right to judge her. Why would you just judge someone based on what they looked like? Under the school? That's incredibly stupid. You guys are stupid." And suddenly it was not longer about Konomi. Why did everyone judge Alex too? Assuming that she loved pink and bunnies and all things girly. She didn't. Her hair wasn't even naturally blond. It was dyed. "Why? Why does everyone have to spread rumors? And don't just say some nonsense about it being human nature. I know plenty of _good _people that don't spread rumors. Konomi-Chan is a good person. Don't just assault someone like that without knowing them." Without sending the girls a glance Alex walked away, just barely realizing what she had done.

She just told two simple gossipers to pretty much F*** off because of some little rumors that they didn't start. It wasn't even about Konomi-Chan. She just vented for no reason. She couldn't turn back and apologize because that would seriously hurt the large amount of pride she had just built herself. She also wanted to look back extremely badly but restrained herself and looked forward, straight ahead to the stairwell. As she got closer she heard sobbing and ran over to the other side.

There was Konomi in the fetal position, her arms over her chest and her slightly wet hair a curtain that hid her face and swept the floor with every sob that Konomi took.

"Konomi...-Chan?" She sat down next to her on the wall and placed her lunch down next to her. "Why are you crying?" Alex couldn't stand it when people cry but her mother always told her to listen and let them cry so that they didn't hold in the sadness and not mess them up psychologically. Konomi looked up after some time, her face in mid-sob as she wrapped her hands around Alex's shoulders and continued to cry.

Alex, somewhere deep inside of her, hoped that it wasn't because of how she just stood up for Konomi without a reason even though they hadn't known each other long. Perhaps the hug was only to prepare for strangling her moments later and catch her off guard.

"Thank you." It was a faint whisper, almost not noticeable by the common passerby that, surprisingly, did not come by. It was an innocent whisper, friendly and shy. Completely not cold and harsh like the other two girl's had claimed. It was a whisper of a friendship to be, probably.

The End for now!

1- I stole the beetle black eyes part from Hagrid from Harry Potter, for some reason. I really don't know why.

2- He was afraid of the lady for some reason and the robot thing was so random that I didn't quite understand it.

3- 'And the world will never know' is from the tootsie roll commercial. It really annoys me though.

4- Cool and spicy is taken from Shugo Chara, which I first read than watched. The anime was good when it stayed on topic but the canon episodes _sucked._

5- I've got the same fear-ish as Alex. It all started on a warmer Easter day when my mom put me in the arms of a scary Easter bunny man...

6- Hana means flower.


	11. Live and let die

**Kokoro no Kagami**

Rana- Um...I'm still sorry about how long it took to update the last one but with school and all...you know...I'M SORRY! On that note I don't own Pot and still don't own the Beatles. I also had to fire Sandy because she tried to kill me several times on the last chapter.

Alex- But who'll do my disclaimers from now on?

Rana- Dunno. I'll think of something. I'll just do it now until I can think of something...

9/29/10- I started updating this faster and writing it because I just got inspiration. My aunt's dog, Russel Ezechial Garza, died a few hours ago. It's 9:32. My families current song would probably be (Help!) at the moment. We'll miss the chihuahua greatly. We had him for a few years.

Chapter 11- Live and let die

Of mice and men, she was probably a mouse. She most certainly was not a man, however, being a she.

If Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, teasing and all, and had a great fall, would she be a king or a queen? A knight in a stall? A tiny little child who was bouncing a ball?

"**Ugh, I'm **_**so **_**bored**," groaned Alex McCarthy, aka Tatsuya Arisa in English over her forest green cell phone.

"**If your so bored, why'd you call me then?**" asked a seemingly annoyed Jordan Locke over the phone.

"**Dunno...I'm just **_**really **_**bored. It's all rainy outside and there's no school!"**

"**You know it's like 2 am over here, right?"**

"**Sorry..." **Alex had forgotten about the time difference but she really didn't care. He was up and there, which meant that he could talk and she was incredibly bored. There was a sudden knock on her door. "**I'll have to call you back."**

Smiling, Alex hung up the phone. And, outside of her door she heard a lot of laughing. It was very loud. Someone must've made a joke, she thought, smiling. After opening the door she found Kenji holding his sobbing child's hand. It wasn't until a meaningful look that she found Kenji's real expression. He looked blank, not stoic but shocked. Something bad had happened.

Alex then realized something important. The thought that everyone downstairs laughing seemed suddenly far from the truth. The real truth hit Alex in the face like a brick when Kenji told her the reason in a grave, surprised voice. He didn't seem to believe it himself. And Alex couldn't find the words to say either. She wanted to pat Kenji on the shoulder or give his son a hug, though...neither seemed quite right for the news. There was only one thing that she could think to say. Her voice came out deeper and closer to the hollow tone that Kenji held than she expected.

"I-I'm sorry for your loss."

_~Mira-Haru~_

Walking with a grave Kikumaru family seemed impossible some weeks before but there they were, sadly marching about a grassy hill while looking for the final resting place of Kenji's girlfriend and the mother of his son, Masato. Alex didn't know a whole lot about the woman, she realized while walking next to a sad but handsome looking Masato in his little black suit. She knew that she had Kenji's son, was in a relationship of some sort with him and...that was about it.

Her name was a sort of mystery on it's own that dug into Alex's racing mind. But other thoughts were also protruding the depths of her mind. Why had Natsuki-the very same girl that would very soon be her tennis captain-been there too? She knew that she enjoyed teasing Eiji-kun, but perhaps there was something more to their relationship. Though it practically burned not too ask, Alex knew her limits very well at the moment. With the sadness (not to mention the graves around) and silence, she could _not_ have asked. Perhaps later, though.

After some time, they reached a large tent with many white fold up chairs beneath it. Now that she noticed it, it looked like perfect funeral weather; rainy, gray skies and a chilly wind. The Kikumaru family, for the first time since getting dressed some hours before, split apart among the thirty chairs and met once again at the back rows, sitting next to who they were comfortable. Mrs. Karo, Alex noticed with pity, was crying her eyes out on Mr. Kite, who was embracing her with one arms and stroking her short black hair with the other. It was both sweet and sad. Yuki and Pikamu were doing the same. Tsubaki held herself and was crying silently.

Strangely, the only thing Alex knew that she would remember forever was how strange Tsubaki looked in black instead of her usual pink and/or light colored schemes. After some time, Alex finally noticed her seating neighbors. One was Eiji-kun and the other was some girl that she didn't know. She was crying harder than anyone else, though she appeared to have come by herself since no one else was there with her. But still, where had she come from? Wait, when had she come?

The girl looked up, her long black hair moving away from her shocking violet eyes.

"What're you looking at?" the girl spat viciously. Alex felt herself shrink into her chair.

"Ah...nothing, sorry." With one last sideways glance at the girl (who was staring fiercly at a rectangular hole where Kenji's girlfriend was to be buried) Alex settled to stare at the bird that were flitting from branch to branch in a large, dead cherry blossom tree behind the grave. The cherry bossom tree seemed to add a creepy effect of its own onto the grave yard, being gnarled and twisted and gray...

Somehow, it was hard to take the eyes off of it. In its own way, it was beautiful. In a gothic way, of course. And then something black and white came into her field of vision.

Suddenly, she got thrown back into her body and watched as five strong men in black suits carried a pristine, scarlet wood casket near the rectangular hole that the mysterious girl was still staring at. Her sobs became louder quite suddenly. Out of the corner of her eye, Alex was sure that Eiji had flinched. Perhaps he wasn't used to funerals either. And suddenly she realized that the mint smell that she had gotten used to was gone. Now it was...vanilla? Banana? Something around there...but it was still sweet. It wasn't all that great though. Sweets weren't that high up in Alex's book but they were okay.

The funeral went by surprisingly fast, with teary and heartfelt speeches from both the deceased and the Kikumaru family. Kenji's son, Masato made a particularly teary one(it made Alex cry tears even though she didn't know the deceased.) At some point Eiji nudged Alex in the ribs and told Alex that he had wrote the speech for Masato. She almost couldn't believe that Eiji-childish as he was-could make something so touching. It was quite surprising.

After the funeral the two families separated and went back to their homes, or at least it was presumed. Masato went with the other family and Alex found that it was weird without her seat mate. Eiji replaced him. When they got back to their house, Shikoku and Yuki went upstairs, both claiming to be tired. Kenji stayed, as well as Tsubaki, Eiji, Mrs. Karo and Kaito. Alex wanted to go back up but felt that it would've been weird. She almost had a new respect for the twins.

They all stayed in the living room. Mrs. Karo served everyone except for Eiji, Tsubaki and Alex some strange fruity smelling drink with a dark red color. It almost looked like blood. The thought almost made Alex hurl.

"I think I need this..." said Kenji quietly before he took his first gulp out of his glass of whatever he was drinking.

"A bit of wine's good for the soul!" said Kaito, smiling after his third sip. Mrs. Karo nodded, looking a little tireder than usual. Now that she looked at her, Alex saw dark bags under her eyes and wrinkles on her forehead.

"I-I'm really gonna miss her. She was like a part of the family." Mrs. Karo let out a small dry sob. It was strange to see the usually bubbly woman sad and quiet.

"She _was," _Eiji corrected quietly before getting up and walking to the kitchen. Her came back with three blue plastic cups and a carton of what looked to be chocolate milk. He smiled as he offered some to Alex, who nodded. He then poured some to both Alex and Tsubaki.

It was silent for a while. When would the talking begin? The boisterous talking of a week prior to the day that the deceased had died seemed years before. Sniffing, Kenji got up and went to his room. He took his glass with him. Kaito and Mrs. Karo left as well.

All that was left in the dark, unlit room were their glasses and the three teenagers on the couch. It was still silent.

"I'm not a blond," blurted Tsubaki suddenly. She then stood and pointed her finger at Alex's nose. "I know you've been thinking that I am, Tatsuya, but I'm not. Honestly." She didn't look happy.

"I'm...sorry?" Alex glanced at Eiji who was staring at his chocolate milk and shaking the clear cup to make a miniature whirlpool in the liquid. "Um...what's it matter if you're-"

"If I'm blond?" she let out a sudden laugh that dripped with sarcasm. She somehow did it without smiling. "For your information, I'm not blond. My hair is just light brown. And I know that you don't think that I'm not a Kikumaru. I'm not. I'm an adopted child." She crossed her arms.

"Um...okay?" She continued to stare at Alex inquisitively and pointedly(it was quite scary.) "What?"

"Now you have to say something about yourself. It has to be two things and has to be really private 'cause that's fair." Alex didn't feel like arguing against her logic.

"Um...my parents are divorced. My dad's half Japanese and lives somewhere here, which is probably why Jordan-the guy who sent me here-entered me in the competition. I got here by accident." She paused to think of something to say something else. Eiji looked a bit shocked about this revelation of sorts. "My hair isn't naturally blond. I'm actually naturally brunette-like medium brown-ish."

Now it was Eiji's turn. He had also heard her story so he had to go to. Alex and Tsubaki both told him so, agreeing for once. He blushed-but knowing that he was fighting a losing battle, he resigned to say something. He took a few moments to think.

"Uh, I once stole toothpaste from a store and never told about it?" he looked to both Alex and Tsubaki, as though wondering if that would do.

"More. That doesn't count." Tsubaki crossed her arms and glared at Eiji. Alex grinned at Eiji and nudged his arm from where she was sitting next to him.

"You've gotta!"

"I got it." Tsubaki hit her fist against her palm. "Who do you like? You already said one thing so this is all that you've gotta say."

Eiji blushed harder. Something way in the back of Alex's mind both wondered and became hopeful.

"N-Natsu-Chan..." he looked down at his shoes. However, his angle betrayed him since both girls could still see his blush. "But don't tell anyone, nya."

Whoa. Natsu-Chan? As in Kago Natsuki? Alex's new tennis captain?

~Koko~Kagi~

Anyone surprised? I was! Next time on Kokoro no Kagami!

Alex is in for it in her first tennis lesson! Who knew that it would be so terrible! Get ready for Kokoro no Kagami- Run for your life! What's this tension between Alex and Natsuki?


End file.
